


Ensemble à Paris

by RomeoandAntoinette, treya_barton



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, Inspired by Anastasia (1997), M/M, Slow Burn, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2020-06-27 21:51:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 42,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19798486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomeoandAntoinette/pseuds/RomeoandAntoinette, https://archiveofourown.org/users/treya_barton/pseuds/treya_barton
Summary: When an evil force attempts to disseminate the royal Narukami family, young Prince Yu is saved by a mysterious servant boy in the palace. However, he disappears from his uncle's sight during the chaos and is presumed dead. Meanwhile, a boy named "Yuri" grows up in an orphanage without any memories of his past besides a pocket watch inscribed with the words, "Together in Paris." Years later, scrappy con-man Yosuke Hanamura and his associate Chie hear that a sizeable reward is being offered for the prince's return. When Yuri enters their lives, Yosuke makes it his mission to claim the reward with Yuri's help, not knowing the man is the real Prince Yu...or that he's the same boy he saved over a decade before. [Yu/Yosuke] [AU - Anastasia]





	1. At The Beginning With Yu

It was only when he entered his dreams that he could vaguely recall what happened on that fateful evening.

It always began the same. Slowly, the world would blink into view. Then, the world began to move at a dizzying speed. While his other dreams usually meandered somewhere between the perplexing and uncanny, this one dream was always surprisingly clear. Yu could see events unfold before him as quickly and blurrily as if he was experiencing them all over again.

The first thing he noticed was the music.

Piano music drifted through the air. The smooth, thrumming strokes of a string quartet quickly followed suit. The sounds made his heart, and the rest of his senses, roar to life.

The air was thick with the aroma of peppermint, which was delightfully sweet compared the scents of vanilla tobacco and woodsy cologne wafting from the party’s dance floor. Then, he felt his fingers curl around a heavily embroidered patch of fabric. The material felt firmer than the layers of velvet that he felt swirl around his legs, which were also donned in matching breeches and silk stockings. Then, he realized that wasn’t all he felt. Something heavy tugged noticeably at his pocket. When he reached into his long chemise to brandish it, he saw that it was a watch.

A pocket watch, more specifically.

It felt weighty and cold in his hand. The golden surface was decorated with colored glass and a rainbow of small jewels. When he clicked it open to check the time, he saw that it was etched with delicate script around the circumference.

_Together in Paris._

“Do you like it?” a voice asked from above his head.

When he looked up, Yu saw he was huddled close to his uncle and gripping the heavily adorned cuff of his court jacket. It was then he always noticed that the minty smell was the strongest around him.

He nodded enthusiastically.

“I do,” Yu proclaimed. The words seemed to come forth of their own volition. His voice was one thing he didn’t seem to have control over. “Uncle…I wish you didn’t have to leave. Can’t you take me with you?”

A peal of velvety laughter tumbled from his lips like an unfurling silk scarf.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” he replied. With a grunt, he lifted the young boy off the ground and unto his knee. A hand patted him firmly in the center of his back.

The loving gesture didn’t sway the prince’s stance. After all, they’d had the same conversation multiple times before. So many times, in fact, that he wasn’t sure he could count them all.

“No, you won’t,” the prince replied. His tone had turned from desperate to deadpan. “Don’t lie to me. I’ll be alone until I see you again.”

A flicker of guilt flashed across the man’s face. The expression aged him decades.

Then, a calming smile graced his features and split his sad visage in half. The effect on Yu’s whole attitude was almost instantaneous.

“I promise I’ll come back, though,” he swore under his breath. The words were spoken softly so that only Yu was the only one privileged enough to hear the promise. “Until then, if you ever get lonely, just look at this watch. Watch the minutes and seconds tick by…and before you know it, we’ll be back together again.”

A sense of newfound joy bloomed within him.

He held the watch close to his chest and nodded, cheeks pink from excitement at the mere thought. “You’re right!”

The two exchanged smiles before falling against each other in a tight, loving embrace. The young prince never wanted it to end.

The illusion was spell-binding an all-encompassing. It was as if the party was a shining marble, and he was suspended right in the center.

Then, chaos broke out.

Yu tried to avert his eyes to the center of the bedlam to see the source of the commotion, but his uncle lifted him up and away before he could get a good look.

Then, there were too many noises. Too many sensations pummeling him all at once.

Frantic footsteps.

Flashing lights.

Searing heat against his cheeks. Perhaps there was a fire nearby.

Terrified screams.

The sound of splintering wood as a nearby door collapsed inward, sending jagged shards of wood skittering across the palace floor.

His own scream was so loud that it shook his brain.

Then, Yu saw another young boy appear before him. His visage was hazy, almost smoky.

The only clearly visible feature were the boy's eyes. Yu thought they blazed like the sun. Like twin infernos against the chaotic skyline that was his obviously terrified expression.

“Quickly, go through the servant’s quarters!” the mysterious boy cried. Each word was strangled. It was probably from breathing in hot smoke, Yu figured. He knew his own throat felt like it was being seared shut. It made it impossible to object or cry out against the demand.

Then, Yu felt a hand shove him in the middle of his back. His body caved under the force as he was pushed into the narrow, dark space alongside his uncle.

“Yu, this way!” he heard his uncle call in desperation.

In the darkness, Yu tried to grope for something, _anything_ , that would guide him back to his uncle’s side.

More chaos.

The whistle of a train.

A sharp pain at the base of his skull.

And then…!

Then…!

Blackness.

His eyes shot open.

* * *

Normally, the rattling of the orphanage’s windows never stirred him.

Yuri had learned to sleep through the sound. After all, unlike some of his other peers, he’d had years to grow accustomed to the sound. While other children came and left the crumbling building over the years, he was one of the few that remained. He was a constant, almost ghostly presence.

Yet, that night, it seemed his dream had mingled too effectively with the storm’s turbulent sounds. As a result, he’d awakened with a violent start. His breath came in gasps and condensed off his face in thick puffs that drifted upward and faded almost instantly in the frigid room.

The silence sobered him almost immediately. There was no fire, and there was certainly no bedlam. He sighed, laying his palms heavily over his thudding heart. Memories of the dream immediately faded, dispersing like his own breath, in the air.

_The same dream._

The windowpanes shook hard enough to make the fragile hardware jitter in place. The wind howled with a ferocity that sounded as if it could crack the windows like sugar glass. Yuri didn’t so much as bat an eye.

After all, he didn’t know anything else. The young teen couldn’t remember a night without rattling windows or freezing bedchambers. The sound of wind whistling through the cracks in the walls was like a lullaby to him. The orphanage was all he’d known since he was a young child, so it had been easy for him to adjust to the sights and sounds associated with the aging building.

For the others, it was another story.

A young girl sobbed softly a few beds away from him. Each sob quivered on her lips from her body’s constant shivering.

Yuri rolled over and sat up in his cot. The threadbare sheets crinkled like ladies’ petticoats around his body.

“Are you okay?” he asked. His voice whispered through the darkness in the direction of the girl’s cries.

For a few seconds, he heard nothing. Nothing except stunned silence. His teeth worried his bottom lip. Had he surprised her too abruptly?

Then, she dared to speak.

“D…Did I wake you?” she replied. Each word was a wet sob. “I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s fine,” he whispered. He hoped the gentleness of his voice could convey the soft smile on his face. “You didn’t wake me. The storm did.”

Silence again. Then, he heard the creaking of a worn mattress. It sounded as if she’d sat up in her bed.

She said timidly, “Me too. Aren’t you scared? Of the storm, I mean.”

Yuri chuckled and pulled his knees close to his chest. The room was a smidgeon too cold for comfort without the added insulation from the threadbare blankets.

“I’ve heard a lot of storms, and they always sound scary,” he told her. “You get used to it.”

“Really?” she asked. The girl sounded more intrigued than before. “How? I mean, how did you get used to it?”

For a moment, he forgot that she couldn’t see him and shrugged. When the action elicited no reply, he continued in a hushed voice, “How? Um, I don’t know. I guess it just happened naturally over time. I do still remember the first time I heard a winter storm, though.”

“And?” another voice asked. The question came from another young boy from a few cots away. It appeared the conversation had either stirred him awake or that he’d also been awakened by the storm. Either way, he’d clearly felt inspired to chime into the conversation.

“And I was _terrified_ ,” Yuri laughed, a little louder than before. “I hid under the blankets and cried until I fell asleep. The second time I heard a storm, I still hid under the blankets…but I didn’t cry. By the third and fourth time, I had to cover my head with a pillow to block out the noise…but I still fell asleep.”

Yuri glimpsed up to look around the room. From the sparse light provided by the clouded sky and light pollution from the hazy cityscape, he could make could the silhouettes of a couple of heads and shoulders in the darkness. It seemed the audience for his story was growing.

“But you don’t seem scared now…” another girl chimed in. The statement almost sounded like a challenge.

His silver eyes sparkled. “Not really. When you experience something challenging or scary over and over, it makes you a little stronger each time. You grow. You _learn._

“I used to be terrified of storms because they were loud and made things shake,” he elaborated bashfully. He directed his gaze to the frayed hem of his old nightshirt. “I thought the room would collapse or…I don’t know, something else terrible would happen. Nothing ever did. I survived and made it through. Now, they don’t frighten me, because I know I can make it through…just like you guys can.”

The sobbing girl from before made a sound of astonishment. “You really think so?”

“I know so,” he asserted.

Another boy with an intense bedhead practically swooned over the statement. His chin landed in one of his heads longingly as he said, “Man. Yuri isn’t afraid of anything…”

“Of course he isn’t afraid,” another voice piped up from the corner. Now it seemed that the entire room was awake and participating in the conversation. “Yuri is our fearless leader! He’s always calm, no matter what.”

Another girl nodded in agreement from across the room. “He’s like a prince from a storybook! Brave, kind, caring…but also mysterious!”

The last word stung.

_Mysterious._

Everyone else nodded in agreement; Yuri turned bright red. He offered the brittle reply of, “Oh, no. That’s not true.”

His fingers searched for something to fiddle with to vent his sheepishness. By reflex, he reached under his pillow and brandished a rounded, palm-sized object. As always, it was heavy and cool to the touch.

“What is that?” one of the children asked. Their neck craned and their spine stretched from over the edge of their bed to get a better look. “Oooh, it’s a pocket watch! How fancy.”

A slightly more mature resident eyed the impressive piece from their bed. “That looks familiar. I think I’ve seen you look at that before.”

“Probably,” Yu agreed. He shrugged again, despite the darkness. His thumbs brushed over the surface delicately, as if not to scuff it with his imperfect fingers. “I…look at it a lot.”

“It looks so expensive!” another child said. Their voice was almost dreamy. “It must have been a gift from someone truly wonderful. Who gave it to you?”

At this, Yuri laughed sadly.

“I...can't remember,” he said. He almost sounded bitter at himself, as if the lapse in memory was his fault. 

He continued softly, “This watch was the only thing I had when I came here, but I can’t remember who gave it to me. They must have been a really special person.”

A gentle press of the release caused the watch to snap open with a satisfying click. Inside, a phrase glittered in the moonlight.

_Together in Paris._

Who? When? Why?

He clung to the questions like a stranded man would cling to boulders in a stormy ocean. The answers were adrift somewhere, but still too far out of reach for him to firmly grasp.

It was…frustrating. Maddening. Depressing.

The room became stone silent at somber Yuri’s admission. The curious faces that spotted the inky blackness of the room suddenly dissolved into forlorn, mannequin-like expressions. Seeing the orphanage’s ‘fearless leader’ display such pure sadness made the mood deflate. While the darkness hid their individual expressions, it did nothing to conceal the blanket of melancholy that settled over the cold bedchamber.

Finally, one of the other teens dared to speak up.

“Oh…Yuri, we—”

The sound of footsteps thudding heavily up the stairs interrupted the statement. The children scattered instantly, as if they were a herd of rodents that had caught the sight of a fox in the brush.

Every listener dashed to their beds and quickly ducked beneath their blankets.

By the time Yuri thought to slip the pocket watch back under his pillow, the room was filled with light from the hallway. A tall man with an arched spine and terrible posture stood framed in the doorway before stepping inside the room.

It was the orphanage’s headmaster, Morooka. The town's residents called him ‘Poor Morooka’ because of his terrible personality and his position as head of the city’s most notoriously run-down orphanage. While the building and its condition were pitiful to the townsfolk, to him, the institution was the one and only place he could reign over with delusional authority.

Amongst the parentless subjects in the kingdom he ruled over, his haughty demeanor and foolish pride earned him the name ‘King Moron.’

Upon seeing Yuri sitting upright and guilty in his bed, he strode across the room and raised a hand to swipe at him. Thankfully, Yuri reacted just fast enough to avoid the reprimand.

“You nameless brat!” the man griped. A sour frown pulled deeply at the corners of his pursed lips, which did very little to conceal a massive overbite and quivering chin. “You think you would have learned some manners by now! Shut your mouth and go back to sleep.”

“Yes, sir,” Yuri replied distantly. “I apologize.”

As Yuri reclined back in bed, the headmaster saw the glint of the pocket watch in the dark. A terrible smile stretched across his unusually small head.

“I remember the day you came here,” Morooka said, each word dripping with venom. “ _Together in Paris_ , huh?”

There was mocking veneer to King Moron’s words that made Yuri want to bolt out of bed and punch him.

“That was the only thing you had on you where you came here…not food or money,” the man continued mercilessly, unable to see how hard Yuri was gritting his teeth in the shadow of night. “You didn’t even try to sell the tacky thing! As if you, a penniless little orphan, has any reason to know the time of day.”

Yuri closed his eyes and kept breathing against his pillow steadily. The berating would end soon. It always did. He just had to wait it out until King Moron has exhausted his ammunition.

“What? You gotta job or something?” he continued, laughing at his own words. “Is someone putting your skinny little arms to work in a factory somewhere? Nah, then you’d have to be useful. Oh! Maybe you need it for a rendezvous with more loudmouth brats?”

The sound of his wobbling footsteps made Yuri wonder if the man had been drinking again. Even his breath was ragged as he staggered across the creaky floor to the opposite end of the bedroom.

Before he reached the door to leave, he turned around one more time. It seemed he couldn’t resist trying to land one last blow.

“That’s just what Paris needs,” he sneered while throwing open the bedchamber door. “Another filthy rat crawling in its gutter.”

The door slammed shut with a thunderous boom. The sound of shattering glass followed a few seconds later. One of the bedroom’s few decorations, a framed pictured of a rose, had fallen to the floor with a crash.

The sound of smashing glass seemed to prompt some of the younger children to cry. Even some of the older children that were closer to Yuri’s age quivered and kept their heads buried under the blankets.

A heavy sigh escaped him. No doubt he’d be punished in the morning for his improper behavior. A long day or chores and menial tasks was surely ahead of him. It wouldn't be the first time he'd suffered such punishment either.

Then there was the hazard of the broken glass.

The young man didn’t want anyone else to suffer for his own self-indulgence. Wasn’t one person’s well-being worth less than a crowd’s?

To Yuri, the answer was obvious.

He also knew that it would be impossible to creep to the downstairs closet to grab a broom without alerting King Moron again.

So, Yuri stayed awake until dawn picking up every shard by hand.


	2. Things My Heart Used to Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke, once a kitchen boy in the St. Petersburg palace, struggles to survive in the renamed city of Leningrad.

Russia was bitterly cold during the winter. Honestly, this wasn’t news to Yosuke; he had lived here his whole life after all. The only difference was before he had a warm place to stay in his little room next to the kitchens in the palace. The newspapers all claimed that life in the USSR was better now that the Communists were in control and everyone was now treated as equals, but Yosuke honestly had to disagree. Maybe if he was older he would understand the ideology better, but as a child who once had three meals a day, a warm place to sleep, and who used to play in the palace when he wasn’t working in the kitchens, his life now seemed much worse in comparison.

After the Bolshevik Revolution had toppled the monarchy and led to the death of the royal family, the servants had been “freed” by the Communists and sent out into the city to find new lives for themselves. Yosuke, who had been an orphan employed by the kitchens, didn’t have anyone to turn to. Yosuke heard that the State was setting up these places called orphanages that were supposed to take care of kids like him, but after his brief experiences so far struggling to survive on the streets, he didn’t believe them. The first thing Yosuke had experienced upon being kicked out of the palace was betrayal, and it was fresh in his mind. Adults were not to be trusted.

When they were forced from the palace, Yosuke had been taken in by Noriko, one of the maids. She had told him that she knew where they would be able to find food and Yosuke had clung to her, trusting this adult who seemed to have some of the answers amongst the chaos of the revolution. At first, things went well. She brought him to places where food was being distributed, and while she always took some of the food portioned for him, stating it was because she was older and needed more energy, it kept him from starving. She wasn’t a warm person, not like the cook who had tragically died in the palace fire the night the Bolsheviks had stormed the palace, but Yosuke didn’t have anyone else to turn to and trusted her. She taught him over the next few weeks how to steal, pointing out people who had possessions worthy of taking so she could pawn them off for more money. She kept all the money herself, but since she was providing them with food and renting a small room for shelter, Yosuke was too naïve to be worried about that. 

Then, one night he had woken up in the small room they shared after hearing the sound of a door closing, and he realized that she had left with all of the money and possessions they had. Yosuke panicked, because some of those possessions they had smuggled out with them from the palace, including a small matryoshka doll shaped like a frog that had been given to him by the prince. Yosuke looked around desperately for it, for it was the only thing he had to remember his dear friend who very likely had perished with the rest of his family. There were rumors that the heir may have escaped, and in fact Yosuke had been the one to help him and his uncle get out, but it seemed when Prince Ryotaro made it back to Paris he did not have the young tsesarevich with him. After a few minutes of panicked searching, Yosuke finally found the wooden toy resting on the floor by the door; it looked like it had fallen out of the bag as Noriko had hastily made her way out that morning. Yosuke clutched it in relief, holding it against his chest and wondering if the former maid had just gone to pawn some of the items off as she often did, unable to even comprehend the fact he had been abandoned. 

It wasn’t until dawn when he overheard the man who had been renting out the room to them cursing that he had been robbed before Yosuke heard heavy footsteps coming closer before the door was thrown open. The man looked livid as he saw the mostly empty room and cowering young boy, and he started shouting at Yosuke, calling him a thief and demanding to know where the wench he had been with had run off to. Yosuke had been terrified, and when the man had lunged at him, he had nimbly dodged before dashing out the door, escaping out into the cold and not once looking back. 

The first few days had been rough, and Yosuke was not sure how he had survived. No one had offered him help, and at first he went without food since he didn’t have an adult around to procure it for him. He also spent the first night outside, only surviving because he had found a stairwell that provided enough shelter from the cold wind to provide a semblance of warmth. He liked to pretend that his frog shaped doll helped him through it, almost as if by clutching it his friend’s spirit was protecting him from the elements. Once Yosuke realized he had truly been abandoned and no one was going to help him, he had gone right back to stealing, eventually honing his craft and learning how to barter with people in order to get an upper hand. He knew he couldn’t allow himself to get caught, but at the same time also knew that it was the only way a child like him would survive on his own. No one was going to help him, so he had to help himself.

Eventually, he found himself back in the part of Leningrad that was near the palace where he had been raised, and almost on a whim he ended up sneaking inside, managing to wiggle his way in through one of the barred windows. The palace was eerily silent – something he wasn’t used to since even at night it would be bustling with the palace guards on night watch. The chill wind outside rattled the covered windows and blew through where some of the windows had shattered when the palace had been ransacked. Many of the of the ornate wonders Yosuke had grown up around had been stolen or smashed when the palace was ransacked, but he found that further inside the palace it was at least warmer than trying to find a place to sleep on the streets, and there was still some furniture remaining that had been too heavy and sturdy to either steal or destroy. Yosuke made his way to one of couches still sitting in what was once a parlor and curled up on it, sighing in contentment since he hadn’t been able to rest on something soft since he had darted out of the house he had been staying in with Noriko. His eyes began to drift close as his body grew accustomed to warmth it had not felt in weeks, for even in the coat Yosuke had managed to acquire for himself it was still bitterly cold, until he was bolted awake by a loud voice asking, “Who goes there?”

Yosuke sat up and turned his head, eyes wide as he spotted a young girl probably around his age standing in the doorway. She must have already been in the palace and came to investigate when she heard him snooping around. She was in boy’s clothes and had short brown hair covered by a warm fur hat, and she was glaring at him with her hands on her hips. She looked vaguely familiar, and Yosuke suddenly wondered if she had also been a palace servant once upon a time. Yosuke put up his hands in a non-threatening manner before replying, “I just came in here to escape the cold. I didn’t think anyone would be in here.”

To his surprise the strange girl let out a huff before entering the room and sitting in an armchair located across from him. “If they find out we’re in here, we’d be in big trouble,” she warned accusingly. “The palace is off limits.”

“So why are you here then?” Yosuke snapped, a little irritated by her haughty tone of voice. The young girl hesitated before looking down.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she said softly, her shoulders slumped.

Yosuke felt bad, for he understood her situation. He was in the same predicament after all. “Me either,” he said softly. “How long have you been here?”

She shrugged. “I snuck back in shortly after they boarded it up. Sometimes during the day soldiers come in here looking for things – if I hear them I just hide somewhere. I haven’t seen them in a little while though,” she admitted. “It’s safer here than out there at least.”

Yosuke had to agree – even if it was dangerous if they got caught, at least in here he could be warm and had a comfortable place to sleep. “Did you work in the palace?” he asked, his curiosity finally getting the best of him. At his question she grew quiet, and she suddenly looked at him more thoughtfully, as if suddenly recognizing him the same way he had her.

“No, but I visited a lot. You were the kitchen boy, weren’t you?” she suddenly asked. “Always goofing off with the prince.”

Yosuke blushed, but he couldn’t exactly argue her point. They did get into a lot of scrapes together. “I was,” he admitted. 

“I’m Chie. My father is a distant cousin of the Narukami’s. Unfortunately, my parents weren’t able to escape during the Revolution. I think they’re in jail somewhere. I ended up on the streets.” Yosuke did suddenly remember her and how she would boss him and Yu around whenever she would visit. It didn’t deter her one bit that he was the tsesarevich, and Yosuke was pretty sure the prince respected her for it. It seemed to be one of the reasons he liked Yosuke so much too, since the kitchen boy often treated him no differently than any of the other children in the palace.

“I ended up on the streets too,” he admitted. “I didn’t have parents or anyone to turn to.” They were both quiet for several moments, until Yosuke heard her stomach begin to growl. She flushed in embarrassment, before wrapping her arms around her knees. 

“Sorry, I haven’t eaten all day,” she said quietly. Yosuke had a feeling she was probably scrounging for her meals which was a tough way to get by with so many people without much food in the city. He thought for several moments, cautious due to his experiences so far on his own, but inherently trusting this bossy girl who was in the same situation he was, if not worse. He reached into his jacket and pulled out some bread he had wrapped up, planning on saving it to eat as his breakfast in the morning but realizing she needed it more than he did. He could always manage to find something else, possibly for the both of them.

“Here,” he said, thrusting it at her. She looked at it in surprise, before staring at him for several moments, a look of uncertainty in her eyes. He had a feeling she had probably been through similar experiences he had, betrayed by people who had once looked after her and her family, and he figured she also had a semblance of pride left that she was currently warring over. However, hunger soon won out, and she slowly reached for the offered bread, before taking it from his hands and breaking it in half, returning part of it to him before eagerly devouring the rest.

“You can have the whole thing,” Yosuke protested, for he could tell by her thin frame she hadn’t been eating as well as he had the past few weeks, but she shook her head.

“I’m sure you’re hungry as well. I don’t want to take all of your food,” she replied. She then curled up on the armchair, back facing him as she rested her head on the arm of the chair. Yosuke looked down at the remaining half of the bread in his hands, and he suddenly realized she was right – he _was_ hungry. He hadn’t eaten in several hours and while he had been saving the bread originally for the next day, learning to ration off his food since he never knew when he would be able to scrounge up more, he found himself instead taking a tentative bite. Soon after he had devoured the rest before lying back down on the couch in contentment. He stared up at the ornate, painted ceiling in the parlor, trying to remember what it had looked like before, surprised that his memory of the place was already getting fuzzy in the weeks he had been away. He would have to teach Chie how to survive in this new Russia, and while he still didn’t trust people in general, he knew she would be someone he could rely on. Yosuke’s eyes slowly drifted close again, and for the first time in awhile, he went to sleep with food in his stomach while feeling comfortable and warm. This new world he had to face was tough, but Yosuke was determined to survive.


	3. Journey to the Palace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now a young adult, Yuri departs from the orphanage toward Saint Petersburg. Along the way, he's joined by a familiar face and learns that the best way to leave the country is to find a mysterious man known as 'Yosuke' who lives in the city's abandoned palace.

The windows of the orphanage were packed with faces. A barrage of arms waved like a reef of seaweed from the dust-coated panes. The faces that couldn’t squeeze into one of the tight spaces at the window climbed atop shoulders or jumped like crickets to catch a glimpse at the front gate.

A few stories below, Yuri stood at the rusted gate of the orphanage with headmaster Morooka. Just a few days prior, he had celebrated his last days as a teenager in the company of the same faces that were staring back at him from stories overhead.

He was a legal adult, and thusly, he was promptly excused from the facility’s care.

While part of him saw the occasion as an incredible blessing to escape and finally begin his own life, anxiety also coiled deep in his gut. Staring up at the weepy faces of his housemates, some of which he felt a sibling-like kinship with, hardly made things any easier.

“Goodbye Yuri!” a girl hollered between sobs. Large tears created silver zig-zags down her ruddy cheeks. “We’ll miss you!”

“Don’t forget us!” another voice yelled from another window. The boy was leaning out so far that he had to brace one hand on the side of the house so he didn’t topple out the window.

The symphony of heartfelt goodbyes warmed his heart despite the arctic chill. Instead of caving into the telltale strain he felt accumulating behind his eyes, he put on a brave face and flashed a confident grin. The last thing he wanted was for them to worry about him.

One of his arms lifted high into the snowy air to wave back to the house and family he’d called home for so many years.

While the newfound freedom was already making Yuri’s blood pound with excitement, there was a distinct taste of melancholy that clung to the back of his throat and stung his eyes.

While he bid a final farewell to the rest of the home’s inhabitants, another voice continued to babble nearby.

“In order to get to the nearest village, you’ll need to walk the path until you reach the fork on the road and then take a left,” the voice droned. It sounded like a continuous rumble, even to Yuri’s trained ears. “That road will take you straight to the nearest village. Fish is their main export, so you should be able to grab a boat and—"

“Yuri, I’ll miss you so much!” a young boy screamed. The shrill sound sent a flock of crows scattering from a nearby oak.

“I’ll miss you too!” he hollered in return, raising his voice high so that it would carry across the orphanage courtyard. This like, a slab of snow skidded from the roof and landed on one of the courtyard’s obviously wilted rose bushes.

“Hey! You damned brat! Are you even listening to me?” the voice accosted, each word oozing with venom.

Age hadn’t been kind to Morooka’s voice. Yuri had thought he’d sounded terrifying when he was a child. Now, he swore the man’s voice could curdle milk.

After one last wave, Yuri lowered his arm and steeled his face. It was hardly a challenge to meet Morooka’s face with cool indifference.

“And yes, I am listening, Master Morooka,” he said in a deadpan tone.

“Tch, taking a smart tone with me, are you?” the older man clucked. “Fine by me. See how far that gets you.”

 _The further from here, the better_ , Yuri quipped internally as another brutal wind yanked at his clothes.

His modest outfit hardly protected him from the cold front that was rolling across the plains. The genteel ensemble of a white shirt, threadbare slacks and a thickly padded canvas coat were ineffective against the countryside snowstorm. He looked like he was much more suited for a stroll through the boroughs and spires of Saint Petersburg.

Thankfully, that’s exactly where the young man intended to go.

“And I’m not interested in going to the village,” Yuri reminded him. “Can you tell me how to get to the nearest city from here? I’d like to—”

“Oh, I see!” Morooka interrupted with a dramatic roll of his bulging eyes. “You intend to pursue your silly little destiny, don’t you?”

Without warning, Morooka’s hand shot out of his pocket and into the folds of Yuri’s coat. His hand retrieved the pocket watch and clicked it open. The embossed messaged glittered in the snow-spattered morning light. “ _‘Together in Paris’_ right? Ha!”

Morooka cast the watch into the air with a flick of the wrist. When Yuri flailed to catch it before falling into a snowy grave, an amused expression creased Morooka’s face. “Oh, absolutely. You’ll fit right in! You’re the most cosmopolitan orphan I’ve ever seen.”

When Yuri’s eyes flashed back to the man, he also saw that he was pulling something from the sleeve of his thickly pelted coat. A velvet pouch was then dropped in Yuri’s hand snugly beside the rescued watch.

Confusion broke his agitated visage.

“What is this?” Yuri asked.

“Are you blind?” Morooka quipped sourly. “It’s a small purse, kid. Some funds to help you scrape by. It’s not much, but it should help you a little bit with train fare or getting a roof over your head for a week or so.”

The gift caused a surge of appreciation to whirl through Yuri. “Oh. That’s very generous.”

The other man tried to shrug indifferently, but his expression remained purposefully averted. Almost as if he was trying to avoid looking at the young man’s glassy eyes.

“Don’t misunderstand,” he griped. “It’s only because I have so little faith in you! You’ll need all the help you can get out there.”

The words sounded harsh, but there was none of Morooka’s usual bite behind them.

“Well…thank you anyway,” Yuri said sincerely as he tucked the purse safely into his pocket. He longed to say more, but sheer surprise had chased his words away. “I really appreciate it.”

The man snorted loudly before turning on his heels and beginning a brisk pace back to the front door. “Oh, don’t thank me yet. If fact, if I were you, I’d save it all for when you get into town. Buy yourself a nice net or something.”

Morooka stopped in the doorway and gave him one last look over his shoulder.

“You’ll need it for that wild goose chase you’re going on.”

Seconds later, the door slammed shut, and Yuri was officially left out in the cold.

* * *

The sudden snowfall hardly helped Yuri decipher the path ahead of him. Drifts of snow caked every stone and tree branch like dessert frosting. 

Brown boots sifted through the snow as a slow but steady pace. With each step, the young man was covered in another layer of thinly sifted ice.

“Ugh, of all days to leave…” Yuri shivered. He wasn’t usually one to talk to himself under normal circumstances, but given how the snow was sinking into the folds of his clothes and collecting on his eyelashes, anything to distract from the building discomfort was welcome.

Eventually, he wandered to the fork in the road that Morooka had mentioned before his departure. Sure enough, a decrepit wooden sign showed two arrows; a left-facing one pointing to the nearest village, and a right-facing sign pointing toward Saint Petersburg.

The young man hesitated for a moment. He’d spoken to Morooka and all his peers so confidently about pursuing his dreams of journeying to Paris and hunting down any clues he could about his past. The young man had woven so many private stories in his dreams about arriving in Paris and being recognized by his family, only to be swept into their tearful embraces and into a normal life.

Now, he was second-guessing himself out of concern for his own health.

It would be easy to hop on a train to Paris in Petersburg, but first, he had to make it there alive.

“Okay,” he said, closing his eyes and squinting against another painful gust of wind. “World. Universe. Send me a sign. Give me a hint of where to go.”

A beat. 

Yuri sighed with impatience at the silence. He turned his head toward the clouded sky and said, “Give me something! Anything!”

Then, he heard a twig snap. Then another, followed by a rustle in the trees.

When Yuri turned toward the sound, he saw something large and furred lurking between the trees. A lumpy shadow lumbered between the trunks clumsily.

Then, with a yelp, the shape became stuck on a hedge and hurled out of the shadows and spilled onto the path. Yuri flailed back from the creature like a ragdoll, backpedaling a few steps before catching on of his heels on a small boulder in the center of the path. His landing created a small cloud of snow that only intensified as he crawled backward and away from the mysterious shape.

Then, the snow cleared.

Before him was a young teen with large blue eyes and a head of taffy-colored hair. He recognized the boy after a mere glimpse.

“Wait…Teddie?” Yuri gapped as she struggled to get his footing. Once he was upright and had a better vantage point of the person who had fallen before him, he was more certain. “That’s you, isn’t it? What are you doing here?”

A whine loosed from Teddie’s blue-tinted lips as he slowly rose to his feet. He was dressed similarly to Yuri in a long shirt and baggy pants, but each item looked a few sizes too large. Even his boots were comically oversized and only clung to his ankles thanks to how he’d wrapped and cinched the laces.

Instead of a coat, he wore a large fluffy pelt around his shoulders like a giant shroud. It made him look truly bear-like. At least, it had been enough to fool Yuri.

“Leader…I found you!” he exclaimed, his cheeks flushing pink with excitement. Somehow, Yuri swore Teddie’s eyes were actually sparkling. “Thank goodness! I had to wait until King Moron left to sneak out, but I’m so happy I found you!”

Yuri’s brows met in a furrow. “You followed me? Why?”

At this, the young man puffed out a cheek. “What do you mean ‘ _Why?_ ’ I was worried about you! There was no way Morooka would let me follow you though, so I had to wait. Thank goodness it was snowing! I just followed your footprints. I was on your tail until all the wind started blowing that pesky snow around! Then, I got lost in the trees until I heard your shouting.”

Yuri’s mind raced to put together the pieces of Teddie’s rambling. While most of the extraneous facts fell upon deaf ears, he was able to put together the terrifying gist of Teddie’s confession.

“T…that means…” he stuttered, feeling his stomach harden. _“I’m a kidnapper!”_

The boy’s shivering fingers pulled a ratty pelt tighter around his small shoulders. While the material was frayed, it looked soft and naturally peppered. Almost like bear fur.

“Where did you get that?” Yuri asked while pointing to the furry coat.

“Oh, I stole it from the closet,” he explained. “The debt collector came today! I don’t remember exactly what he said…something about collecting some funds? Anyway, he’s always a huge jerk to everyone! So, before I slipped out, I grabbed his coat! It’s so soft and fuzzy.”

Yuri’s complexion paled. _“I kidnapped a thief!”_

“Teddie, we have to go back—” Yuri started. He reached down and grabbed the shorter teen’s wrist and started to turn around. “If we hurry, we can get you back home before sun—”

“No!” Teddie said, yanking himself free of Yuri’s grip. His pout from before remained a permanent fixture on his face, but Yuri wasn’t in the mood to be swayed by it.

“Teddie, don’t be ridiculous,” Yuri sighed. Agitation prickled his voice. “You have to go back. It’s too dangerous to go on. Besides, the others will be worried about you.”

The boy made a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a guffaw. “Please, leader. You were my closest friend there. I’d rather be with you than go back to that place. I’d be too lost without you.”

Yuri pinched the skin between his eyes. “That’s not the point. Teddie…”

“Leader, you and I are the same,” Teddie argued, becoming uncharacteristically serious. “Neither of us know where we came from. I…don’t have any idea who I am or where my family is. If I stay at the orphanage, I know nobody is going to come and get me.”

The hard shell over Yuri’s heart melted. His instinct was to argue against the notion, but the two had grown up together, and he knew very well that Teddie only feigned naivete on a regular basis.

“But you’re on your way to Paris to find your family, right?” he asked while lifting a hand to his heart. “Please let me come and help you. I don’t…want to be all alone back there.”

It was a tough request to rebut. The young man only had a moment to debate the idea before a distant barrage of voices drifted to his ears. At first, he was unable to decipher the words being shouted through the treetops.

Then, as the sources drew closer, he started to make out words like ‘escape’ and ‘thief.’

Yuri didn’t waste another second. He grabbed Teddie hand and shoved him forward. “We have to go. Move!”

With a firm hand pressed against the young man’s small back, the two made their way to the right of the sign. The village would be too close of a call, and they’d probably be spotted.

“Woohoo! Thank you, leader!” Teddie cheered mid-sprint. “You won’t be sorry!”

“Thank me later,” Yuri gasped, chancing one more glance back before he carried both of their bodies further down the path. “Just don’t stop running!”

It looked like the world had sent him a sign after all.

* * *

It had taken almost half a day of running and eventual walking, but the duo had managed to make it to the city unfrozen and on two feet.

It had been a struggle to stay upright during the long walk, but the instant that the city lights had become visible through the kaleidoscope of tree branches and white-tipped, Yuri had sprinted forward like a newborn fawn. Cold air burned his lungs and his blood sang an opera in his ears, but he didn’t care.

After so many years, he had taken his first step toward finding the truth about his identity.

Saint Petersburg, in all its sparkling and noisy glory, was a very large and bustling square one.

Yuri and Teddie followed the lights and sounds of the city until they arrived at ice-coated rows of houses on the outskirts of the city. The difference in atmosphere was immediate the second that they entered the limits through a neighborhood that lined the rivers feeding into the Baltic Sea just beyond the city’s towers, which glittered like mica in the setting sun.

The two teens lumbered aimlessly through the coal-slicked streets hand-in-hand. Both were strangers in a strange land, and the last thing the duo wanted was to become separated. 

While they walked, Yuri took in the sights with wide, observant eyes. Speckled snow congealed in the gutters and sidewalks flowed with fast-footed workers like blood platelets moving through a vein.

A few women with painted lips and dark eyes stopped to flirt and crook their fingers in silent beckoning, which resulted in Yuri sheepishly blushing and Teddie blowing them inconsequential kisses.

“See, leader?” Teddie asked while striking a flamboyant pose. “I’m already a natural heartthrob, even in a big city!”

At this, Yuri laughed for the first time in a few days. It felt nice to smile again.

“You’ll fit right in when we get to Paris,” Yuri told him fondly. “Then, you can be my leader instead.”

The statement made Teddie’s jaw drop to his chest. Yuri had to clutch his gut from laughing at the astonished expression. It felt even better to laugh than it had to smile. It felt liberating. Like oiling a machine after years of neglect and rust.

Eventually, the two navigated the web of streets to the heart of the city. Streets were dotted with everything from bread bakers to flower sellers. The walls were painted a rainbow of shades, from robin’s egg to daffodil yellow, and were adorned with swirling patterns of glass tiles that were borderline hypnotic in their placement.

The inconsistency between the different areas of the city—rich versus poor—was almost comically obvious. Yuri hadn't witnessed the impact of the communist regime thanks to his lifetime of confinement in a rural orphanage, but by his standards, even some of the most decrepit areas still impressed him compared them to what he’d grown up knowing.

Meanwhile, every crevice between the narrowly spaced buildings boiled over with vendors hollering loudly to get customers’ attention. Fast-talking shop owners packed tables with everything from priceless antiques to cheap knick-knacks. Others sold more precious goods, like warm baked goods and fresh produce. Both had been incredibly luxuries back at the orphanage but seemed borderline commonplace in the city.

While he and Teddie proceeded toward the billowing columns of smoke that hinted at a train depot, Yuri’s eyes seemed to magnetize to one particular shop. The venue was dressed in a colorful awning and sold high-quality miniatures made from materials like glass, marble, and stone.

There, in one of the windows, he spotted a small frog figurine.

Nostalgia flashed through Yuri like lightning, but he couldn’t place a specific memory. Seeing the small statue evoked a sense of melancholy that sank deep into his bones and lingered stubbornly. Like the smell of rain or the feeling of a heavily powdered blackboard eraser, there was something about the sight of the small statue that filled Yuri with wistfulness.

“What’s wrong, leader?” Teddie asked when his companion’s stillness had brought him to a sudden halt.

Yuri looked at the small frog again, blinked a couple of times, then shook his head.

“Um, nothing.” Classic half-lie. Or perhaps it was a half-truth. “Never mind. Come on, let’s go.”

Childhood memories pushed aside, the two returned to their brisk pace and made a beeline toward the train depot. It took a few minutes of nudging and elbowing to finally reach a steadily moving queue. Wading through the densely packed crowd of ticket seekers was like trying to walk in a straight line in the ocean.

Once they reached the front, Yuri dripped into his pocket to brandish the velvet purse. He hadn’t counted out the money that Morooka had given him, but he imagined that the cost for something as simple as transportation couldn’t be too high.

He was correct. The price of the tickets wasn’t the issue. Rather, it was the fact that neither he nor Teddie possessed the proper paperwork to leave the country.

A clerk had glared at them with immense disdain for their lack of knowledge about a rudimentary procedure. “No exit visa, no ticket!”

When Yuri tried to object and even offer her more money the woman only turned up her nose and slammed down the glass, effectively silencing him.

At his side, Teddie stuck out his tongue indignantly at the woman that instant that she turned her back to them. “What a mean lady! Leader, what are we going to do now?”

Possibilities rattled around in Yuri’s brain like marbles.

Truthfully, the young man was at an absolute loss of how to proceed. Morooka certainly hadn’t gifted him with any paperwork upon his departure that could serve as a clue. If Teddie had any documentation, the best-case scenario was that it was all the way back at the orphanage.

“I…um…” Yuri started, trying his best to avoid Teddie’s inquisitive eyes. “Um…”

Then, he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

He turned around to see an elderly woman shrouded in layers of black, heavily embroidered fabric. A black veil also eclipsed her face, only bulging slightly to reveal the slight hook to her nose. With her outfit and her lack of luggage, Yuri suspected the woman was in line to purchase a ticket to a funeral or wake.

“Excuse me, young man,” she croaked while rotating her wrist. It was a silent beckon that granted Yuri and Teddie permission to lean in closer. When they did, she cupped her mouth and whispered, “You want paperwork to leave the country? Yosuke can help you. He’s a good boy. Reliable, too. Go and see him.”

Yuri’s heart literally soared at the prospect that someone in the city would be able to assist him. Despite his obvious excitement, he still tried to suppress the surge of glee he felt. The offer almost seemed too good to be true, and he didn’t want to get his hopes up too early.

“Where can I find Yosuke?” Yuri asked in a low whisper.

“The abandoned palace,” she muttered briefly. “It’s boarded up, but he’s sort of…taken residence there. You should be able to find a way in.”

The silver-eyed teen practically beamed in joy. “Thank you! We will. We’ll go now. Come on, Teddie.”

With the woman’s words still fresh in his mind, Yuri seized Teddie’s shoulders and spun him away from the station. The two then moved in a disjointed tangle through the crowds and away from the depot.

“Thank you, miss!” Teddie called to the darkly clad woman while waving his arm excitedly overhead in a swishing motion.

The second they were out of sight, the blond redirected his attention to Yuri. When he glimpsed the look of determination on Yuri’s face, he should have felt completely elated. After all, they had a direction again. Everything was looking up.

…But something wasn’t right.

All the way, something nagged at Teddie, but the young teen couldn’t place exactly what was bothering him.

It wasn’t until they were on the doorsteps of the palace and pulling the boards off the door that the boy realized that Yuri had known exactly how to get to the palace without requiring any directions.


	4. The Biggest Con in History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke has concocted a plan to finally make enough money to leave Russia for good. The only thing he needs is someone to play the part of the missing Tsarevich so he and Chie can collect the sizable reward money offered by his uncle for his nephew's return.

Yosuke’s head was throbbing. He and Chie had been sitting and watching auditions for half a day now, and it was almost as if as the day progressed the options were growing steadily worse. He and Chie both had a pretty good idea of what they were looking for in the part, since the rumored missing tsarevich had pretty striking features as a boy, but so far not a single person had really hit the mark. Or even had been on the target at all. Yosuke tried his best to keep his face neutral as next candidate stepped onto the stage, obviously well over a decade from the target age of the prince, and proceeded to overact in what was obviously a gaudy stage costume, pretending to be overjoyed to see his uncle yet again. “Uncle, it is me, Yu,” he said, dramatically throwing his hand in the air, while both Chie and Yosuke stared at him with dumbstruck expressions. Fortunately, Chie spoke first.

“Uh, thank you for your performance. You will be contacted in the next few days if you passed,” she said, lying through her teeth. There was no way someone with actual gray hair due to age could look the part of the tsarevich. Chie waved him off with a strained smile before slumping in her chair. “That was awful,” she complained, before glancing down at their long sheet of crossed off names. Fortunately, their most recent contender was the last one for the day. She crossed off his name a bit more eagerly than many of the others and set down her pen with a sigh. “You know, when you first told me about this wild idea, I thought it was a good one. Now though…”

Yosuke clenched his jaw. “It _is_ a good one,” he stubbornly insisted. “The reward money for finding him would set us up for life – don’t forget that. And who better to find someone to fit the part than someone who actually knew him?” Yosuke shoved his hands in his pockets, with his left one wrapping around the well-worn toy frog that he kept with him. He knew that Prince Ryotaro had seen it with Yu when he was still alive and he was banking on it giving legitimacy to whoever the found to play the part. At this point in his life, Yosuke was pretty certain his childhood friend was dead like the rest of the royal family, so it made him feel a little less guilty about this scheme to get reward money out of his uncle. He was sure that Yu would want him and his cousin to lead a better life, and if he could find someone that was just right it may ease the older man as well who was still looking for his nephew this many years later. Yosuke could not help but consider it a win win scenario. “I mean, you don’t want to live here forever, do you?”

Chie shook her head. “There’s nothing for me here,” she said sadly. Her parents had disappeared under house arrest and she had never heard anything about them again after that. She was quite certain they had been disposed of like the other members of the royal family. It was all the more reason for her to leave the country that had taken everything from her. She and Yosuke had over the years upgraded their skillset from petty thievery to forgery and other scams the young man was able to think up to survive. Many people came to him to forge documents such as exit visas and other forms of identification, and Chie was always a ready and willing partner for whatever new scheme he came up with to make money. Their ultimate goal was to escape Russia and travel the world until they found a place they could truly call home.

In spite of his words, Yosuke still came across as melancholy, causing Chie to roll her eyes before nudging his shoulder. “Hey,” she said. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m starving.”

Yosuke let out a sigh before pulling his hat down over his ears, causing his long bangs to annoyingly flatten over his eyes, which lead him to pull the hat off again with a huff so he could comb his bangs back before shoving the hat back down again to trap them. Satisfied with the result, he then shuffled after her out of the theatre room in the palace that they were using for the auditions. The room still had a semblance of its old splendor with gilded embellishments in the fading tapestries and musty velvet seats that the nobility used to use when they came to see private performances for the royal family. Yosuke had actually never known this room existed as a boy, for there were certain parts of the palace he had not been allowed to enter due to his status. It was amazing how much of the palace he had missed out on until he started to explore it again after it had been ransacked. “I don’t know if we can afford meat today,” he said, keeping his voice purposefully light, and he held back a grin ask Chie clicked her tongue at him.

“Well too bad because that’s what we’re having,” she declared, stomping ahead of him. Chie was dressed in a thick man’s coat and breeches and kept her hair short, so she was often mistaken for a male. It suited her just fine since it gave her more freedom and the ability to take on hard labor odd jobs when they were between scams. Yosuke, meanwhile, mainly contributed through his ability to forge documents, a skill that made them pretty good money and kept them going through the long Russian winters. 

He had a reputation as being a bit of a con artist, although annoyingly for him he was also often called a “good man” due to the fact he would sometimes help people out for free depending on their circumstances. Yosuke tried his best to keep stories about those particular actions from spreading, knowing how dangerous appearing soft could be in his line of work, but somehow word kept getting out. It led to more headaches as people tried to come up with sob stories to get work out of him for free, which he fortunately had enough awareness to see through and harshly decline when it came up. It never stopped being a nuisance though, and he honestly would prefer it if everyone viewed him as a scoundrel instead. Chie always seemed to find it amusing, and although his kind moments had sometimes put them in a financial bind, she never discouraged him from it. She never told him directly, but he knew she liked the fact that even after all they had been through, he still had a streak of kindness at his core. Chie was much the same when it came to other street children they encountered that had been like them, and she often looked out for them by taking care of bullies or adults that would take advantage of them or providing food or money when they needed it. She wanted to make sure they had more than she and Yosuke did growing up.

They ended up at a local tavern not too far from the palace where they would often get stew, bread, and a drink to stave off the cold. The bar was a little grungy due to the side of town they were on, but it was warm and the food was good. Yosuke had provided services to the family on several occasions and he and Chie often were given free meals or drinks when the family could afford it. Once they both arrived, they made their way to their favorite spot by the fire, not even having to order since they always got the same thing. “I was really hoping we could have found someone at least remotely similar to the prince,” Yosuke said with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair and warmed his feet by the fire. He also slid off his hat, allowing his bangs to fall back over his face while he set the hat in his lap.

“Hmmm…there were a few that I thought could pass with some work,” Chie said thoughtfully. “You’re just too picky.”

“We have to make sure he can convince his uncle,” Yosuke pointed out, while Chie tilted her head thoughtfully.

“You say that but…” she said, before trailing off.

“What?” Yosuke asked, turning to regard his friend. She was being oddly hesitant, which was strange since she was usually pretty frank with him. “Just say it, Chie,” Yosuke rolled his eyes.

“I think deep down, you’re kind of hoping we will find him,” she admitted. “And the options aren’t good enough because, well, they’re not _him_.”

Yosuke felt an odd pain in his chest at her words, and immediately grew defensive. “That’s not true,” he scoffed. “I know very well the prince is probably dead. There’s no way he could be simply missing all of these years.” Yosuke could tell that his voice sounded too bitter to be believed, especially since he had tried his best to appear ambivalent. He blushed and hid his face under the furred collar of his jacket.

Chie frowned at his words, before looking down, obviously a bit hurt by his tone. Yu had been her cousin after all. “Chie, I’m sorry, I….” Yosuke started, and she nudged his boot with hers.

“I know,” she said softly. “I guess I just…I secretly wish that maybe we’ll find him,” she admitted.

The pain in Yosuke’s chest twisted, and he wearily closed his eyes. “Just try not to,” he said. His hand was in his pocket again, this time reaching for the frog doll for comfort like he used to as a boy. The moment his fingers brushed its worn surface he felt himself begin to relax. Maybe Chie was right – maybe he did, deep down, hope to find the missing prince again. While he and Chie were close – they had to be, relying on each other to survive – there was just something about his childhood friendship with the prince that no one could replace. But, he wasn’t about to admit that aloud. It was too painful. “Hopefully when we have our next round of auditions we’ll have some better candidates,” Yosuke said, changing the topic, and Chie rolled her eyes.

“If you’ll learn to be less picky,” she retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. Not long afterward, they were brought their food and drinks and immediately chowed down. Yosuke felt his throbbing headache subside as he got some warm food in his belly, and suddenly realized he and Chie hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning. The headache was still faintly there, however, almost as if it was a silent reminder of the thoughts and feelings he was trying his best to ignore. Yosuke downed the rest of his vodka, knowing he’d need the warmth it provided for the walk home since it was well after dark, before rubbing his hands together. 

“Ready to head back?” he asked, pulling out some money to pay for their food, and Chie nodded.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to storm tonight so don’t want to be too late,” she agreed. Outside the temperature had dramatically dropped as the snowstorm was moving in, and they both hurried their way through the slush back to the palace, huddling close to one another for warmth against the chill wind that was beginning to pick up. It would be another night of rattling boards and windows with wind moaning through openings exposed to the outside, which meant Chie and Yosuke would be retreating to one of the innermost rooms of the palace. 

As they drew closer to the palace, locked in one of their usual banters, Yosuke suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he rubbed his neck nervously before stopping and looking around. “What is it?” Chie asked curiously as his eyes scanned the outside of the castle. 

“I just have an odd feeling all of a sudden,” he admitted, before spotting something out of the ordinary. The path they were taking to the palace was well trod from all of the people who had come in today for auditions; it hadn’t snowed in the city all so the tracks hadn’t been covered up, although they would be that night. Further down, however, barely discernible since the moon was covered by the clouds of the storm coming in, Yosuke was able to make out what appeared to be faint tracks leading toward the side of the palace. “I think someone’s here,” he said, his heart pounding, while Chie gave him an odd look.

“What makes you say that?” she asked, also looking around, but Yosuke wasn’t paying attention. He rushed into the palace through the hidden entrance they used, while Chie shouted his name after him. 


	5. Take a Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While searching for Yosuke, Yuri simply can't put his finger on why the destroyed royal palace, and former home of the Narukami family, feels so familiar to him. Just when things couldn't get stranger, he and Teddie are surprised by the one and only Yosuke and his business associate, Chie. While Yuri is confused but determined to get to Paris nonetheless, Yosuke notices that the silver-haired stranger before him bears an uncanny resemblance to the mythical prince he and Chie had been searching for.

Dust stung his eyes and winter chilled his bones.

In many ways, the interior of the abandoned palace was harsher than the raw cityscape of Saint Petersburg. On the outside, the sprawling catacomb of gravel and brick was at least been chock-full of busybody merchants and passerby. The citizens were the lifeblood of the city's concrete veins. Even if areas appeared decrepit, nowhere was truly vacant.

Inside the palace, there was…nothing. Emptiness.

Something about the husk of a building made Yuri’s stomach drop. Then, he realized the source of his discomfort. It felt unnatural. The abandoned building he’d just set foot in wasn’t _supposed_ to be so empty. Seeing the towering presence of bygone royalty crumble into a forgotten heap made his skin prickle and itch.

The silver-haired man drifted further into the foyer, funneling his anxiety through footsteps that were probably a smidgeon too loud. He didn’t even think to entertain the notion that they weren’t alone.

Meanwhile, Teddie stood as still as a statue. Only his dandelion puff of hair fluttered in the foyer’s soft draft. Then, as if breaking from hypnosis, he suddenly rotated his head like an owl to soak in the sight before him. “Woah…this place is amazing!”

“Yeah,” Yuri agreed breathlessly. Another half-truth. The young man was still vacillating between feeling astonished and unreasonably disturbed. “It…certainly is.”

As if sensing Yuri’s apprehension, Teddie rambled on. He was already proving himself to be quite the expert at filling in conversational blanks.

“I mean, it’s definably on the…shabby side,” Teddie said, choosing his words carefully as if the walls could actually hear his remarks, “But still! This place is amazing! Even after all this time, it’s still the prettiest building I think I’ve ever seen!”

The corners of Yuri’s mouth sank. ‘Prettiest’ wasn’t the word he would have chosen.

Between the moonbeams of dust filtering from the crumbling walls to the rust-colored splotches on the floor, every nook and cranny of the site was caked in grime.

The distant pitter-patter of scurrying rats raked his body with chills. The windows glittered like coins on the eyes of the dead.

Then, everything became a blur as a myriad of sensations assaulted him like a stampede of racehorses.

The windows shattered from boulders and bricks thrown from below. Fire. A terrible heat burned close to his eyes, as if he was sitting too close to a hearth.

Screams.

The smell of peppermint and iron..no, blood. Then bile.

The odor of coal and the sound of a train whistle speared his brain.

Then, bleary darkness.

Yuri blinked again and the sensations faded. The windows shimmered in the moonlight.

Meanwhile, Teddie was practically twirling across the intricately tiled floor, where thousands of glass squares were arranged in a perfect collage so they created a sprawling mural of wildflowers that cascaded down the entryway stairs and created a fairy circle of artificial blossoms around the ballroom’s dance. Dressed in his dark coat, he looked like a pinecone floating on a breeze across the faux field.

As Yuri descended the stairs to the palace’s grand ballroom, the grandeur of the bygone building continued to swallow him. The blips of darkness and despair he’d felt before seemed to dissipate like mist, leaving behind gleaming and lush stems of nostalgia.

With each step, the gold molding became shinier and murals of painted cherubs and frolicking ladies became rosier. The young man became blind to superficial disrepair. 

The room roared to life around him.

Within, tendrils of warm familiarity began to relax the muscles in his shoulders and back. The line of his neck straightened, and his jaw laid confidently as he lifted his silver eyes skyward, where they glimmered like twin flames in the sparsely lit room. Despite the horrors he’d glimpsed mere moments before, he couldn’t help but feel restful inside the building’s hollow walls.

“Yuri?” Teddie asked. He’d paused his flailing upon noticing the abrupt change in Yuri’s posture.

The scrappy orphan looked more akin to a regal price than a hapless youth from the wrong side of the tracks. He looked—and felt—like he belonged.

Then, a miracle occurred; Teddie’s mouth snapped shut and he was at a loss for words.

For, right behind Yuri, a massive family mural towered multiple stories overhead until it kissed the palace’s ceiling. The painting took up the entire expanse of the ballroom’s back wall and was dressed with two spiral staircases that led further into the crumbling palace. However, the artwork wasn’t what left the young teen dumbstruck.

Even Teddie, who had spent his entire mysterious life completely void of outside influence, knew the people in the painted portrait were the previous royal inhabitants of the palace.

The subjects were members of the long-gone Narukami Royal Family, all adorned in ceremonial attire and jewels…and Yuri was a slightly older mirror image of the youngest son.

Yu Narukami.

The boy was a legend. Rumors and myths had changed him from a boy to a symbol of rebellion. Too young to have a stake in the politics that had launched his life into turmoil, Yu's existence had been resigned to a _body_ who had been missing for over a decade. One of many young lives lost to a hellish raid that broke apart a family and an entire country’s previous regime. Prince Yu was the missing link to a long mystery that, in turn, set a new form of leadership in motion and left an entire generation of citizens jaded about the future.

Teddie's gaze flickered to Yuri again. For a few seconds, he just watched.

Was it possible?

Then, before he knew it, Yuri had turned to face him with a devilish grin on his face. He crossed the room in a handful of strides and took Teddie's hand to lead him in a ballroom dance that made them sway across the dance floor.

Yuri began to hum a melody while they glided to-and-fro across the flower-spattered floor. While Teddie held on for dear life and had to practically skip his way through the dance to keep up, Yuri seemed to have no problem slipping into a rhythm. He even wound their arms together artfully so he could give his partner a twirl. His movements were so expert that even Teddie’s floundering couldn’t squander the pair’s grace as they clasped hands and continued to sway to imaginary music.

“Leader, where did you learn to ballroom dance?” Teddie asked. It was a valid question. After all, it wasn’t as if the orphanage they’d lived in had held homecoming festivities, let alone taken the children to royal dances. Outside bare-boned academic teachings, they’d learned nothing of culture and art growing up.

A beat passed before Yuri finally conjured an answer.

“I learned when it was too cold to go outside,” Yuri answered vaguely. He didn’t know how he knew that. It had just felt like the right answer to give.

“Too cold to go outside?” Teddie parroted. Now that he thought about it, he recalled that Yuri has arrived at the orphanage in winter. The snowdrifts had practically chilled him to the point of hypothermia, and he most definitely would have died if King Moron hadn’t allowed him the ability to transfer into the institution as a resident.

With another twirl, Teddie spied the mural overhead again and caught the intense gaze of the boy’s painted eyes. “Leader, you’re oh-so-very _tainstvennyy_! Maybe, once upon a time, you were actually a prince after all.”

The older teen sank his teeth into his lip. “No.”

“Oh, come on!” Teddie pestered as their dance finally slowed to a complete stop. “It would suit your persona, you know.”

Yuri laughed bashfully, rolling his face into his shoulder. “Well…I’m sure a lot of other orphans with missing parents hope and dream about the same thing…but I don’t think I’m cut out to be a prince.”

Not to be dismayed, Teddie immediately set forth proving his leader’s humbleness wrong.

“ _Once upon a time, a mysterious prince with silver eyes escaped a kingdom in peril, only to end up at an orphanage_ ,” Teddie announced with a sweeping gesture. “ _There, he met his dashingly beautiful sidekick, and the two embarked on adventures across the continent!_ That’s how your story would begin.”

Yuri took his fist and lightly thumped Teddie’s forehead right between his blond brows. “Quiet, or I may have you banished from my kingdom.”

“Nooo!”

Although he didn’t take his friend’s teasing all too seriously, a part of Yuri dared to hope.

Like a waking man clinging to the thread of a peaceful dream, he tried to lock the moment away in a safe spot in his brain that he could revisit once in a while. He wanted to keep a warm thought safely locked away that he could turn to when the rest of the world became cold and lonely around him.

Once upon a December.

 _“Hey!_ You two!”

Yuri and Teddie snapped their heads in the direction of the voice that cracked through the tranquil air like a whip. The strident volume had an instantaneous effect on the duo’s adrenaline.

Ridden with terror, Teddie attempted to scramble away in a panic but tripped on his coat. He slipped and was sent sailing across the floor. Yuri cursed and attempted to dive after him, but it was too late.

“Wait!” another voice called. “Stop right there!”

Two sets of footsteps neared at an alarming rate. Moments later, two figures emerged from the inky interior and sprinted toward them. If the timbre of their voice was anything to go by, they sounded angry enough that Yuri though he may have to fight one—or both—of the mysterious figures off. The likelihood of a successful defense was also unlikely and the odds were only worsened by the fact that he and Teddie were essentially empty-handed and without weapons.

Realizing it was too late, Yuri pushed Teddie behind him and faced the two head-on.

Out of the shadows, two young adults emerged. They both appeared similar in age to him and were dressed in roguish attire that looked neither warm nor well-fitting. They also shared fawn-colored eyes and shaggy haircuts. They almost looked like siblings. Almost.

“Woah, you were right…” the young woman said. "There were people here after all."

She walked closer to examine Yuri and Teddie more closely. Meanwhile, the young man hung back and wore a slightly astonished look on his face. Unlike his counterpart, his gaze remained solely focused on Yuri. Had the situation been any less delicate, Yuri would have thought he was being leered at. The hard lines of determination on the young man's face didn't assuage Yuri's mounting concerns that the individual was brooding less than savory ideas.

“Why are you staring at my leader like that?” Teddie suddenly asked, pulling the exact question Yuri longed to ask right out of thin air. He popped out from behind Yuri’s back and wagged a finger in disdain. “What are you? Some kind of vulture or something?”

“...Huh?” he asked. The young man seemed dazed and distracted.

“You heard me!” Teddie said even louder. The high ceilings caused his already pitched voice to echo imposingly. “You know what vultures are? Nasty! I’m not letting you peck at and eat my leader, you nasty bird!”

“What the hell are you talking about…?” he fumbled.

Yuri raced forward and clapped a hand over Teddie’s mouth. He pulled the blond back to safety behind him. “Uh. Please forgive him. He’s just…very energetic.”

The dryness of Yuri’s reply seemed to earn him good favor with the mysterious figure. He even cracked a smile. “Yeah…I can see that.”

“Are you…Yosuke?” Yuri asked cautiously.

At this, the young man’s expression changed.

“Um, yeah,” Yosuke replied, evidently caught off guard by the direct inquiry. “Who’s asking?”

“My name is Yuri,” he said. He then released a pouting Teddie from his grasp. “And this guy in the bear coat is my friend, Teddie. We’re trying to leave the country, and were told that you might be able to help us with some of the…um…”

“Paperwork?” Yosuke guessed.

“Yes. Exactly.”

A sigh escaped Yosuke’s pursed lips, but he yielded no real reply. While Yuri’s words had evidently reached him, the young man remained obviously distracted. Yuri even watched as the young man’s amber eyes flitted back and forth between his face and something else in the room.

Finally, Yuri couldn’t take it any longer.

“Alright, what is it?” Yuri queried at last. The whole situation had already made him restless enough without the addition of other unwarranted anxieties. “If you have something to say, just say it.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a dead-ringer for the prince?”

Yuri blinked. He hadn’t been expecting to hear that of all things. “What? Prince?”

Yosuke spun his index finger in a loop. “Turn around.”

At a loss, he turned to face the large, painted mural behind them. The royal Narukami family towered over the group like turrets of a castle. A dark-haired woman and man with ashy, borderline gray, hair stood together with clasped hands. They appeared to be married. Another mysterious man stood near the woman and bore stubble and a serious expression. The two looked similar, and Yuri concluded the two were probably siblings. It stood to reason that the depicted royals were a husband and wife, and the sister’s brother was also included in the family. That made sense.

The shortest subject of the painting was in the bottom left corner of the frame. There, two sets of silver eyes met as Yuri looked at the familiar face of missing prince Yu Narukami.

At this, Teddie let out a noise and thudded his fist against Yuri’s back. “I told you!”

Yuri narrowed his gaze at Teddie. “Told me what?”

“Other people think you’re the prince too!” he replied shortly. This time, he dug his fingers into the material of Yuri’s shirt and shook him more insistently.

“I have to admit, the resemblance is uncanny.”

The voice came from the mysterious girl who had run into the room earlier alongside Yosuke. She wore a mishmash of suit pieces that barely matched in both color and texture, but somehow, the ensemble still looked stylish on her strong but petite frame. If Yosuke was a con man, then his ally bore the look of a suave head honcho.

“My name is Chie, by the way,” the other figure said. She was shorter and stronger than Yosuke, but radiated energy like a supernova. Despite her amicable demeanor, Yuri got the feeling she also had more than a few chips on her shoulders. Like Yosuke, she lacked a sort-of brightness in her eyes that he had glimpsed in other residents, including in the faces of some passerby and well-to-do socialites drifting through the streets.

Meanwhile, Teddie was otherwise distracted.

“Oh my,” he cooed as he reached out to flirtatiously take her hand. The two were barely acquaintances and Teddie had already taken a shine to her. “Miss, you are positively enchanting! Tell me, why in the world are you holed up in this place with such a mangy ruffian?”

“ _Mangy ruffian_?” Yosuke replied, voice buzzing with annoyance. Chie, on the other hand, reared her head back and roared with laughter at the description.

“I like you, Teddie!” she announced gleefully. She brought down a hand in the middle of his back, like a makeshift christening, that almost send him bouncing into the ground from force.

Meanwhile, Yuri looked on with eyes as wide as saucers. Just who were these people?

While Chie busied herself by making small talk with Teddie, Yosuke redirected his attention back onto Yuri.

“So, why are you leaving the country?” Yosuke asked the young man. His tone was casual but kind. “You visiting family or something?”

“Um…well, I might be.”

Two chestnut-colored brows lofted. “Might?”

“I don’t really know,” Yuri muttered. His fingers absentmindedly slipped into the pocket of his coat to caress the cold textured metal of the pocket watch. “I’m actually an orphan. I don’t remember who my family was…or even who I am.”

The phrase piqued Yosuke’s curiosity.

He continued, “I just left the orphanage with Teddie. I don’t really have anywhere else to go…I think I might have some family in Paris. I hope.”

The weight of the admission didn’t fall on deaf ears. Chie immediately tossed Yosuke a knowing glance, which he returned with the most subtle of nods.

It seemed good fortune had fallen into their laps.

Or, rather, it had walked through the front door.

“Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t help you. For your information, Chie and I are en route to Paris too,” he let slip.

While his attitude was deceptively lofty at the subject, his diligent eyes didn’t stray far from his new acquaintance’s face. He didn’t want to miss any trace of a reaction. When Yuri reared his head toward him in obvious interest, a smirk split Yosuke’s attractive visage.

“Paris?” Yuri inquired. “Why are you heading that way?”

“Well, it’s funny you should ask.”

Yuri cocked his head. The confused gesture betrayed the terrible gut feeling that was starting to congeal in his stomach. “Why…would that be _funny_?”

He shrugged and began a leisurely saunter over to the painting. The man’s footsteps were as light as a toy soldier’s. “You see, my associate and I have been looking high and low for individuals bearing a resemblance to a certain missing prince. We believe that the prince may actually be alive and might still be in Saint Petersburg under everyone’s noses.”

Yuri followed Yosuke’s movement with his eyes as he continued to walk. After deftly passing the prince’s youthful face, he circled around again. It was as if he was being cornered by a jungle cat. Or, perhaps by a vulture.

“Chie and I want to bring the missing prince home,” Yosuke said. His hand stroked his chin before thrusting it outward. His fingertip landed square in the middle of Yuri’s chest. “You seem like a primary candidate.”

“Me?” he asked. Yuri turned on his heel and shook his head, which suddenly felt like a one-hundred-pound weight on his spine. “Oh, no, I’m really not…”

The young man was hot on Yuri’s heels.

“You can’t argue that the odds are on your side!” Yosuke argued as he skipped over to Yuri and animatedly seized his shoulders. His heels skidded a few inches before digging into the ground and bringing Yuri to a halt. “I mean, an orphan with amnesia with family in Paris? The same city where the prince’s remaining family fled following the attack? There’s no better match out there!”

The rhetorical question gave Yuri pause. When he phrased it like that, the scenario suddenly didn’t sound improbable. It all sounded unlikely and completely impractical, but it was far from as impossible as he’d originally thought.

“Plus, the physical resemblance is pretty uncanny,” Chie piped up from afar. “Also, can you really argue? Yosuke may come off as an idiot, but he does make a good point.”

“Hey.”

The world was spinning. His inner emotions rattled hectically like lotto balls in a cage.

“I…suppose it’s possible,” Yuri finally conceded. The rest of the room went silent as his stammer. “I mean, even if I was, I’d have no memory. And if I’m not, how would I know that either.”

Yosuke hung onto each word and nodded along. “Yes! Exactly!”

Despite himself, hope began to unfurl in Yuri’s chest like a springtime bud thawing from a long winter’s chill.

Yosuke continued, “Chie and I have an extra ticket for Paris, but it’s reserved for the one and only Prince Yu…or the _possible_ Prince Yu. All you have to do is agree to come along.”

The orphan mulled the offer over. Nothing Yosuke was saying was completely illogical, and the offer on top of it all was insanely generous. “But…”

“If you agree to come, I’m sure we could happen across an extra ticket for your companion as well.”

_Teddie._

Yuri’s fingers cured around the circumference of the pocket watch. Unable to muster an immediate reply, all Yuri could do was turn back to the painting again and stare. He looked at the small, silver-haired boy in the corner. Two wide eyes, undaunted by hardship, stared back at him.

He had to wonder. Could those really be his eyes?

“Fine,” Yosuke said easily as he grabbed Chie by the elbow and lured her away. “We’ll give you time to think. After all, it’s just an offer. If you’re really not interested, then we’ll move on then. My apologies for not being able to help.”

Chie blinked and followed her friend slowly. After they were about a dozen feet away and out of earshot, the woman dipped her head and whispered frantically to her companion, “Yosuke, what the hell do you think you’re doing? He’s literally a perfect match! Are you really just going to let him walk away?”

Yosuke gave her a calm side-eye over his shoulder. “Relax. Just trust me and keep walking.”

“What?” she guffawed.

“Walk a little slower,” he urged softly. “Give him time.”

“Give him time?" she whispered manically. “Yosuke, this isn’t…”

Meanwhile, the second Yosuke and Chie had departed from Yuri’s immediate vicinity, Teddie practically leaped in. The boy’s eyes bright blue and broken with moisture, like the inside of clamshells.

“Leader, come on!” Teddie said through clenched teeth. “Even if you’re not the prince, this is basically a free way to get to Paris. Maybe your royal family is waiting for you, and maybe not, but you’ll never know unless you go! Yosuke and Chie are the only ones that can help.”

The silver-haired man exhaled deeply and loudly. Frigid fingers knifed through his ashy hair. “I don’t know Teddie…”

“Exactly,” he argued bluntly. “You _don’t_ know, and you’ll never know if you don’t take a chance!”

The statement hit Yuri like a brick across the cheek. It was a point that he couldn’t argue against.

While Yuri and Teddie continued their frantic dialogue, Yosuke began a silent countdown. “Watch this. Three…two…”

“Wait!” Yuri called from atop the staircase. “Chie, Yosuke!”

The fawn-colored man gripped his fist victoriously before turning around. It always stunned Chie how Yosuke could turn on a dime and change from giddy to blasé in a number of seconds. Feigning total innocence, he asked, “Did you say something?”

The duo ambled to a stop while Yuri and Teddie crossed the distance between them.

“Yosuke,” Yuri said with surprising firmness. “I…I've decided that I want to go with you.”

He feigned surprise. It was a convincing act to everyone except Chie. “Oh, really? That's a sudden change of heart.”

“I mean, everything you said makes sense,” he argued. “Let’s say, purely hypothetically, that I am the prince. I can’t disprove that notion because I don’t remember anything about my past. Even if I don’t remember them, they’re bound to remember me. Maybe they really did lose me when I was a kid, but even so, they're still family. My childhood would still be gone, but at least I'll know my identity. I'll know who I am.”

Three nods. “Right.”

“And if I’m not the prince, well, there’s no harm in at least checking,” Yuri reasoned. “If I'm wrong, then at least I’ve made it to Paris and can find my real family.”

Chie and Yosuke exchanged brief glances at the statement. A pinprick of guilt stabbed them, but not hard enough to numb their enthusiasm.

“That’s very true, Yuri,” Yosuke returned. “At the end of the day, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. It’ll be a temporary partnership, and either way, you’ll be one step closer to reuniting with your family. You’ll never know if you don’t take a chance, right?”

“…Right!” Yuri agreed. For the first time, he flashed Yosuke an actual smile. His declaration earned a broad grin from Yosuke, who redirected his face back to Chie far too soon. Yuri wasn’t sure why, but the mere sight of the other man’s joy made something in his chest flutter indistinctly. Had the situation been any less dire, perhaps he would have taken a second longer to savor it.

Then again, it seemed they’d have plenty of moments ahead of them to enjoy each other’s company.

“Well then, _partner,_ ” Yosuke said jovially, “Onward to Paris?”

The young man nodded before slipping his hand into Yosuke’s. His skin was warm to the touch.

“Onward to Paris,” Yuri agreed with a brisk nod.

The two sealed the deal with a handshake so powerful that Yosuke yelped. He retracted his hand and shook the pain out of his fingers, all while trying to ignore how adorable Yuri’s guilty expression looked.

“You've got...a really good grip,” Yosuke laughed, and Yuri’s cheeks became even redder.

Even if they were about to pull off one of the biggest cons in history, it was good to know the young man was at least excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


	6. In the Dark of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are finally introduced to the man who placed the curse on the Royal Family, tipping off the series of events that would lead to their downfall: Adachi Tohru.

Purgatory was an abysmal place. There was absolutely no way to tell the passage of time, and since it was dark, cold, and damp Adachi had honestly taken awhile to realize he was in a new place and not still dying in a freezing cold river after being shot by the palace guards. By the time he started to vaguely realize where he was, he had already lost track of time and couldn’t tell if it had been days, years, or months since he had placed the curse on the Narukami Royal Family. He was unsure why he was in what he assumed to be purgatory, rotting away listlessly in a boring immortality, instead of hell. He had sold his soul to get the reliquary he had used for the curse and had fully expected after unleashing it and being killed as a result to end up tortured in a pit, satisfied that at least he had gotten his revenge on the Tsar who had tossed him away and disrespected his long service to the family. He had been called a fraud, and while there may have been a basis of truth to it, Adachi did not take kindly to his position and power being stripped away.

Although he had already been dead at the time, Adachi had the pleasure through the curse to see the Tsar and Empress shot to death by the Communists who rose to power through the restlessness caused by his curse, setting fire to and ransacking the palace as they rounded up the royals and ushered them away to a secret house before finally executing them due to the risk they posed. The tsarevich had not been with them, but Adachi had seen the young boy hit his head on train tracks the night of the fire while trying to escape with his uncle, before the curse’s magic had faded away and lain dormant ever since. Adachi had laughed watching that scene, taking pleasure in the look of horror on Prince Ryotaro’s face as his nephew’s hand slipped from his fingers and the boy fell to the train tracks below, hitting his head as the train pulled away. Ryotaro had been unable to jump down after the boy due to the crowd pressing around him. Adachi was certain that if the blow had not killed him, being left out in the freezing cold winter night would have finished the job.

The shaman was laying stretched out on a pile of bones, listlessly staring out into the abyss and ignoring the small critters that slithered in the darkness around him. As long as he ignored them, they seemed to ignore him and he was satisfied with that. He was going through an old exercise, trying to remember what his life was like in his glory days living in the palace and acting as holy man to the Empress. He had gotten along fairly well with her brother, even though Ryotaro often warned Adachi not to take his position for granted, and frustratingly seemed to sometimes treat him as a child like his nephew. Adachi hadn’t listened, of course, and had been unable to control his greed, which is what had caused the Tsar to mistrust him, especially when rumors spread in the court about his closeness to the Empress. They were a complete lie, but due to the fact some of the other rumors had a basis in truth, the Tsar had stripped him of his power and banned him from Court. To make matters worse, when he had reached out to the Prince for help, Ryotaro had turned his back on him saying there was nothing he could do. He had given Adachi a look of pity, and that was something he truly could not stand.

Adachi’s dark musings were interrupted by an odd sensation tingling in his very bones. It seemed to flow out from inside him, and was soon visibly whisking around him, looking like glowing green smoke. Adachi sat up straight, finally recognizing the sensation. The smoke was the power granted to him by the dark forces – the curse he had used to kill the Narukami Royal Family. For some reason, after lying dormant for however long he had been down here, it was waking up again. The smoke began to gather in front of him, becoming thicker in the middle and beginning to appear staticky until an image began to appear in front of him. Time had been unkind to the palace, and it no longer retained any of its former glory, instead looking ragged and unkempt from the years of neglect. It was the first indicator the holy man had of the passage of time and he drank in it, enthralled by the first exciting thing that had happened to him in a decade. Then, Adachi’s eyes were drawn to a figure standing in the middle of the ballroom, silver hair and silver eyes letting him know exactly who it was. Somehow, the tsarevich had survived.

“How is that possible?” Adachi seethed to himself. His face, broken by age and cursed magic, looked like it had been used to break firewood when he was last alive.

How long ago had that been? He couldn’t recall. Time had become even more of an abstract concept during his bout of wallowing between states of living. His fragmented soul had previously been perfectly content to abide by the unspoken laws of purgatory and just…drift meaninglessly.

This, however, was another matter.

Yu Narukami’s life was something he refused to abide.

Legs, weakened by ages of decay and inactivity, buckled beneath his weight as he threw himself from his perch and began to pace. Rage dulled his physical senses as he hauled his broken body to-and-fro across a threadbare plane of existence.

“Damn…damn… _damn!_ ” he swore, each word a violent heave that nearly caused his fragile chest to collapse on his spine. “Does that damned brat think he’s better than me? I bet he does. Oh, I should have drug that pretentious piece of shit down here with me when I had the chance!”

All the while, the screaming souls of tormented demons bounced and danced about him.

It was as if Adachi was a pacing feline, and the evil spirits were mice watching anxiously for the predator’s next more. Or, more accurately, the next attack.

The reliquary. The source of all his power. The ornately decorated vial, suspended by a gold chain about his neck, was as vital to him as a heart was vital for humans. However, unlike a heart, it was a million times more powerful.

Demonic minions, diaphanous as shadows, danced in a ring around their master. The faster Adachi chanted, the faster the demons continued their frenzied dance.

“See to it that train crashes,” Adachi ordered. His voice boomed like thunder in the center of the whirling dervish. As if he was the eye of the storm. “Do whatever you need to do. Kill whoever you need to kill. Bring me the prince’s head! _Now, go!_ ”

The minions cackled before soaring skyward and out of Adachi’s hellish domain. Behind them, the crazed laughter of the former royal adviser chased their diaphanous coattails until they escaped the palace’s walls and seamlessly vanished into the dark night sky of Russia.

As each haunting apparition took to the night sky in a flurry of movements that looked like black snowfall, Adachi was filled with renewed purpose. A renewed sense of being, nourished by hate, bloomed in his chest amidst body garden saturated with self-indulgent revenge.

Adachi has sworn it once before, and he would swear it again. He would have his revenge on the family that had ruined him

Last time, the boy has miraculously survived his near-death experience on the train tracks.

Adachi was bound and determined to make sure that when Yuri boarded the train for Paris, the young man wouldn’t be so lucky twice.

The Narukami legacy would be drenched in fresh blood. 


	7. Evil Will Find Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke, Yuri, Chie, and Teddie are on board the train heading to the harbor where they will be taking a boat to Paris. Yosuke cannot help but be pensive as he considers the mysterious young man that is the focal point for their scam.

Yosuke was silently staring out the window of the train as his three companions had a lively conversation next to him. His mind kept replaying over and over the moment this “Yuri” had turned his head in the palace and stared at him with familiar gray eyes. Yosuke felt like he had been staring at an apparition of his old friend, and it had greatly unsettled him. His striking resemblance to the missing tsarevich was uncanny, and Yosuke kept having to remind himself that it was nothing more than a coincidence. This young man was just a fortunate stroke of luck, made even more so by the story he told about having no memory of his past. Yosuke still wasn’t sure if he believed it, jaded as he was by the sob stories told to him over the years, but it suited his purposes just fine.

He did regret offering a ticket for the obnoxious boy in a bear suit, although it had been his trump card since he knew it would get Yuri on board with the idea of traveling with him. The young blond was very loud and had continued to make off color remarks about him, much to the amusement of his best friend. She was keeping a tally of all of their arguments in a book, and much to Yosuke’s chagrin he was somehow on the losing side. Yuri also seemed wary of Yosuke and was keeping a cool distance from him, and honestly while it stung a little Yosuke found he preferred it. Yu, his childhood friend, had been a warm and steady presence in his life, and if this Yuri had been anything like him Yosuke was afraid he would start blending the fine line between the reality of the scam and his childhood memories of a much different boy. Yosuke’s hand made its way to the frog toy in his pocket and he let some of the tension in his shoulders ease a little. Nothing could replace Yu, not matter how striking the resemblance this man had to him.

Suddenly, the door to the car opened, and Yosuke turned his head to see Teddie stepping out with Chie standing up as if to follow. He blinked in surprise, since he had been so lost in thought he hadn’t been keeping up with the conversation at all, which caught Chie’s attention. She rolled her eyes before explaining, “Both of us are stepping out to the bathroom.” She then leaned in closer and whispered in his ear, “Try not to be moody this whole trip. Use some of that charm of yours.” She then nodded her head toward Yuri who was now the one studiously looking out the window at the snowy landscape. 

Yosuke glanced at him, biting his lip and not looking forward to it. They did need to start preparing Yuri for what was to come and if Yosuke was being entirely unsociable it would certainly make things difficult. Chie grinned at him before stepping out of the car after Teddie and sliding the door shut. Yosuke eased out a deep breath before turning to look at Yuri, startled to realize that the silver haired man had turned his eyes on him, although he looked away again with a faint blush. Yosuke lifted an eyebrow in surprise before tilting his head. “So, you were both orphans, huh?” he started, causing Yuri to turn and look at him.

“Yes. We were raised in an orphanage outside of Leningrad,” Yuri explained. “By a man named Morooka.”

“Must have been nice,” Yosuke sighed while leaning back.

To his surprise, Yuri flinched. “It wasn’t,” he flatly replied, surprising Yosuke.

“I don’t know, having a warm bed and warm food…” Yosuke replied. “Many people would kill to have that.”

Yuri looked back at him, staring him down for several moments, while carefully choosing his words. It reminded Yosuke a little of Yu who rarely flew off the handle like Yosuke often did, and he felt his heart skip a beat. “The bed was hard and the room was cold,” Yuri replied. “Morooka was often cruel to the children. I took care of them more than he did. In fact…I feel a little guilty that I left them behind. It’s why I didn’t send Teddie back when I should have. And the food – there was never enough. Morooka spent too much of the money on alcohol which should have been spent on food and firewood.”

Yosuke felt that old rage grip his heart that had hit him once he was old enough to truly understand how he had been abused by adults. Yuri looked taken aback by the fiery expression in his eyes, and Yosuke heard him softly intake a breath. Yosuke reached for the toy in his pocket again, gently gripping it in order to calm down. “Sorry I…I guess I always thought it was easier for the kids in the orphanage than for us,” he replied.

It was now Yuri’s turn to appraise him. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Chie and I – we were both also orphans. Only we grew up on the streets,” he explained. “Once the Revolution happened her family was taken away. I never really had one to begin with but the place where I had worked was ransacked and we both ended up on the streets. Adults were never kind to us either – they always tried to take advantage of us,” he explained. He stared down at the floor of the car as he spoke, trying his best to ignore the other man’s gaze on him. Yosuke didn’t like feeling vulnerable, and he wasn’t sure what it was about this Yuri to draw that out of him when they had only just met. There was something instinctually trustworthy about him, and it was making Yosuke feel uneasy.

Their conversation was broken by the sound of the car door flying open. Chie was gasping for air, while Teddie was crowding behind her and looking confused. “The papers…the papers are red!” she gasped.

Yuri also looked confused while Yosuke felt panic well up inside. “Damn Communist Russia – always bleeding red,” he said, gritting his teeth and grabbing his bag. 

He could hear down the hall an inspector asking to see patrons’ exit visas. “Is there a problem?” Yuri asked, and Yosuke turned to look at him.

“The last time I had to forge papers, they were blue,” he said, opening up his to show Yuri the blue ink on their exit visa. “Apparently, now they’re in red. Grab your bags – we’re going to the baggage car.”

They hastily grabbed their things and made their way down the hallway, squeezing past other patrons that were preparing their exit visas to show the inspector. After making their way through several cars, they finally made it to the baggage car where they huddled together in the cold. “This is going to be miserable,” Chie sighed as she set down her and Teddie’s bag. Teddie was clinging to Yuri, who was looking around at their surroundings with a bemused glance. Yosuke, meanwhile, bemoaned the loss of comfort.

“What’s going on?” Teddie asked, still unable to understand the situation.

“His Royal Highness deserved more than riding with a bunch of commoners, so we brought him to his own personal car,” Yosuke replied airily, causing Chie to giggle. Teddie, meanwhile, took it to heart.

“A Royal Car fit for a prince!” he said, waving his arms around enthusiastically with a sparkle in his eyes. To everyone’s surprise, even Yosuke had to laugh at that one, before joining in.

“Yes, isn’t it just grand? Look at all of the gifts people have brought as offerings to the tsarevich!” Teddie then began to try to guess what was in each bag as Yosuke encouraged him, and Chie and Yuri looked on in surprise.

“I don’t know what you did, but I haven’t seen Yosuke goof off like this since we were kids,” she said in amazement.

Yuri murmured to himself, “It seems almost familiar…” which caught her attention.

“Hmm?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“It’s nice, seeing them get along,” he replied with a fond smile. Chie’s brows furrowed in surprise, and she found herself looking over at Yosuke as he and Teddie laughed before turning her head back to Yuri and the look on his face as he also watched them.

‘Familiar indeed,’ she thought, suddenly brought back to the times she had spent at the palace as a young girl before the Revolution. It seemed often when the three of them would play together, Yu would get a similar fond look on his face over whatever plan Yosuke had come up with them to play that afternoon.

Their fun was interrupted by a sudden lurch of the train, and they were startled to realize it was suddenly picking up speed. There was also a loud crashing sound, and they watched in surprise as the car they were connected to came loose and began to drift away as the engine pulled them away. “Isn’t it dangerous for us to be going this fast?” Chie asked as the rest of the train began to drift farther and farther away. Fortunately, the baggage car was close to the engine, and Yosuke and Yuri decided to go investigate.

“You should probably stay behind, Your Highness. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt,” Yosuke said as they climbed between cars, and Yuri rolled his eyes.

“Don’t call me that,” he replied sulkily, and Yosuke let out a snort.

Yuri glanced at him, and Yosuke blushed before saying softly, “Sorry, that just sounds like something _he’d_ say.”

Before Yuri could ask who Yosuke meant, they both arrived at the main engine and were horrified to realize that the fire in the engine was raging much too hot, and the attendants who were supposed to be stoking the fire were nowhere to be seen. “Shit,” Yosuke said, thoughtlessly rushing inside, immediately sweating from the heat of the fire. Yuri stood back by the door and looked around, trying to see if there was anything that they could use to possibly put it out.

Yosuke, meanwhile, was looking for a source of water in the cabin, and upon finding it came to the quick realization that they were screwed. “All of the water has been dumped,” he called back to Yuri as he dropped the empty container on the ground. His cheeks were getting flushed and he was starting to pant from the overwhelming heat. He continued to look around for anything that may help and reached for one of the shovels before immediately yelping and dropping it. The heat from the fire was making even the handle burn like iron. Yuri reached inside and yanked Yosuke, pulling him out back into the frigid air that was welcoming to Yosuke’s heated skin. Yuri tugged at Yosuke’s hands, frowning at the quickly formed blisters, before scooping up some snow from the train to cover them. Yosuke sighed in relief at the cooling sensation, before looking worriedly at the train car. 

“I don’t know what we’re going to do. Without anyone controlling it and at the speed we’re going it’ll be easy for us to overturn,” Yosuke said.

Yuri, who was still clutching at Yosuke’s hand, was staring ahead. “And it appears we’re coming to a bridge,” he said, causing Yosuke to look in the same direction. As they both watched, out of nowhere there was a sudden rumble like an earthquake that nearly knocked them off the train. Yosuke clutched onto Yuri and pulled him close, wincing as his hand felt like fire in the process, before watching in horror as the bridge began to collapse from the middle, the tracks crumbling down into the abyss below.

“Shit,” Yosuke said again, before getting back into gear. “We need to find the break,” he stated, and he almost rushed back into the cabin before Yuri stopped him. He gave Yuri a questioning look, and the other man pointed inside, showing that the break to the train had been snapped off and would be useless. “What the hell?!” Yosuke cursed.

“We can try uncoupling the car,” Yuri replied, but when they looked down to see where the train cars were chained together they noticed that they appeared to have been wielded together somehow, possibly from the heat of the engine.

“This train is cursed,” Yosuke said, sounding dumbfounded. “I’m going back for that shovel.”

“You’ll just get hurt. Let’s see if there’s something in the baggage car that can help,” Yuri said, pushing Yosuke away from the engine and back toward the car they came from. They were fast coming upon the broken bridge and it was making their head spin. They burst into the baggage car, and Teddie and Chie stared at their manic movements and wild eyes.

“What’s going on?” Chie asked.

“See if you can find anything that may get us to break away from the engine car. It’s welded together and we’re careening towards a bridge that literally just broke apart in front of our eyes,” Yosuke said.

“What? You can’t be serious,” Chie replied, although she was already jumping up to help. Teddie began to whimper, although he also began looking around.

“We may be able to use this to slow down,” Yuri said, pulling out a large metal hook on a chain.

“We still have way too much force from the engine,” Yosuke said distractedly, before Chie caught their attention.

“How about this?” she asked, pointing to a box of dynamite that was sitting in the corner of the cabin.

“That’ll work,” Yosuke said, making his way over and pulling out a stick. He pulled out a match from his pocket before heading out of the car to place it between the welded area where the trains were coupled together. There was a spot where he could wedge in the stick of dynamite which he did before striking the match and lighting it.

“Everyone find cover!” he shouted, and they all rushed to the other side of the car, ducking down behind some of the larger pieces of luggage and covering their ears. Moments later there was a large explosion that rocked their car, and they were relieved as the engine began to pull ahead while they began losing a little bit of speed. Unfortunately, they had far too much momentum and were way too close to the broken bridge.

“Hand me the chain,” Yosuke said darkly. Yuri looked uncertain, glancing at Yosuke’s hands, but Chie pulled it from him and handed it over.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, and Yosuke made his way to the back of the cabin before looking down. He ignored the dull pain in his hands from the blisters as he studied the train tracks as they whizzed by underneath. He would have to hook it the right way in order to ensure the hook would catch and slow them down.

“Make sure this is hooked somewhere inside the cabin,” he said, and Yuri firmly tied the chain to a post.

“Ready,” he called.

Yosuke did his best to tune the others out as he climbed onto the edge of the train and unsteadily hung down, ignoring Chie’s shout of, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He thought he also heard Yuri curse as well while Teddie let out a squeak of surprise. He pushed that all out of his mind as his eyes zeroed in on the train tracks below. He was only going to be able to get this right once. Yosuke held the hook loosely in his hands as he focused, before dropping it down just at the right time and angle to allow it to catch on a train track. He let out an excited whoop, before gasping as the train car shook as the hook began to tug on it, causing the train to begin to slide off the tracks and a few pieces of the track to come flying off as the hook tore through them due to the weight of the train car, the pieces careening straight for his head. 

Yosuke was suddenly yanked up just in time, narrowly missing being speared by a train track and nearly colliding with the person who had saved him instead. Fortunately, Yuri stopped them just in time, and instead they both stared directly into each other’s eyes, far too close for Yosuke’s comfort. Yuri had pulled him up by his arms and was still gripping them tightly, adrenaline racking his body. Although they were going much slower now, they still hadn’t completely stopped due to the train tracks ripping up, and were still careening toward the broken bridge. They were, however, moving slow enough to jump ship.

“Looks like this is our stop,” Chie said dryly, as she looked down at the piles of snow below. “I guess we’ll be walking the rest of the way…”

“We just have to walk to a bus stop,” Yosuke replied, although he didn’t look too keen on the idea either. It was freezing outside after all and the snow drifts looked very deep which would be a pain to walk through. They all gathered up their luggage before exchanging looks, linking arms for support before leaping out of the car together into the deep, soft snow below. As they tumbled into the cold, comforting snow, they looked behind them as the train engine tumbled off the bridge, freefalling down into the valley below where it landed with a small explosion, followed by the car they had been in only minutes before. They couldn’t help but huddle closely together for comfort, realizing that they narrowly escaped death. “Remind me to never ride a train again,” Yosuke grumbled as they began to collect their things and prepare for the long walk to the nearest bus stop.


	8. Everything Out of Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quartet continues their journey toward Paris, with Yuri and Yosuke still butting heads along the way. However, as time passes and the group continues to bond, Yuri learns that the most difficult challenge ahead may be the task of confronting his own past.

As Yuri was learning, life was more than sitting and waiting for one’s life to begin. It was an aggregate of uncertain moments linked by circumstance, coincidence, and luck.

It was made of moments spent traversing the backroads of Russia with a ragtag team of other orphans and ruffians. Moments spent counting the seconds until they were out of the cold and onto sun-patterned trails that yielded some semblance of warmth.

And, especially for Yuri, moments spent wishing that people would have the decency to say his name correctly.

“Hey, Yu—”

“That’s not my name.”

The young man didn’t know how many times he’d corrected Yosuke. It had to have been upwards of twenty times in the past hour, maybe more.

While the group’s saunter had carried them away from the wreckage of the train they rode out of Saint Petersburg, it had also carried them to a maze of remarkably uninteresting paths through the forest. The group had no direction to rely on besides the occasional trading post or weathered road sign.

During their prolonged walks, the group didn’t have many means of entertainment. The only means of distraction they had from the chilly breeze and rocky pathways was small talk, much to Yuri’s chagrin.

“You can at least answer my question,” Yosuke griped with a sigh.

“I’m not answering your question because you didn’t address it to me,” Yuri replied evenly.

“Look, Yuri,” Yosuke said as he trotted ahead a few paces so the two could walk shoulder-to-shoulder. Sadly, Yuri’s extra handful of centimeters in height made more of a difference than Yosuke would have liked. Yuri attempted to use the extra centimeters to his advantage by hiking ahead, but Yosuke’s long-legged frame kept up easily.

“You’re going to have to get used to answering to the prince’s name,” he reminded the silver-haired man.

The statement caused Yuri to flick an inquisitive gaze back at Yosuke. “Why is that? We’re going there for answers. It’s not like I’m lying about my identity and trying to fool them.”

Yosuke bit his lip and rolled one of his sleeves anxiously. “Yeah…well…”

The hesitant answer made Yuri stop in his tracks. “Well, what?”

Amber eyes looked everywhere except Yuri’s face. “Um, okay. Yuri. Don’t be mad, but…”

The color drained from Yuri’s previously pink, wind-battered cheeks.

“Oh no…” he moaned.

“Hear me out,” Yosuke tried to say, but Yuri was already groaning in denial.

He turned away from Yosuke’s guilty expression while raking his fingers through his hair. “No, no, no. You never said I had to  _ pretend _ to be the prince!”

The declaration caught the attention of Chie and Teddie, who had wandered a few paces ahead.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Oh my!” Teddie exclaimed as he too twirled around to examine the interesting situation unfolding behind him. “Could it be? Is it a lovers’ quarrel?”

Yosuke rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his pockets with a mighty huff. “Emphasis on the ‘quarrel.’”

It took Chie less than an instant to piece together the small list of clues into the inevitable conclusion that Yuri had learned of their incentive to produce him to the royal family under a slightly altered guise of existence.

“Oh, Yuri…” she began slowly. “You didn’t really expect that we would just throw you into this whole situation without any … um, training, did you?”

She almost sounded sad, as if she was trying to speak sympathetically to a child. Yuri didn’t care for her tone at all, but his icy stare didn’t stop her from pressing onward with her query.

As for her pseudo answer, he cared even less for that. Training was one hell of a sugary synonym for what he knew could be described as ‘deceit.’

They were intending to lie their way up the royal ladder by passing him by as the long-lost prince all along. He wasn’t Yuri to them. He was Yu. He was a poor, lost soul who had been scrounging up resources for his entire childhood and teenage years just to afford the series of train trips to Paris to reunite with his family. The idea of posing as the long-dead heir made him ill. It felt like a charade … a persona he was unworthy of donning.

Then again, another part of him wondered what else he expected. Chie made a good point.

A sigh wracked Yuri’s body. The journey of a thousand steps to find his family in Paris had just been lengthened again. He wondered if he would be strong enough—or clever enough—to make it through.

Sensing his hesitation, Yosuke gently padded over to Yuri and laid a hand on his shoulder. The touch was gentle; a stark contrast to the abrasiveness of their earlier interactions. When Yuri reared his head to face him, a genuine expression of kindness stared back at him.

“Yuri, do you want to know what I see when I look at you?” Yosuke asked.

He’d used his name, and the soft-spoken tone it was spoken in made Yuri’s heart flutter. Stupidly, he mumbled, “I don’t know. Um …”

“I see someone who belongs at the helm of something bigger,” Yosuke declared. His fingers curled into the fabric of Yuri’s coat. “You know what it is? You’re a wildcard.”

Of all things Yosuke could have said, Yuri certainly hadn’t been expecting to hear that.

The sentiment was outright disarming. “A…wildcard?”

“Yes!” Yosuke exclaimed. “Listen, you don’t have to believe me when I say this … but I know how you feel. You’re used to being alone, right? Your nerves are raw because you only know hurt. You don’t want to get close to others because you think the only reason people would bond with you is so they can treat you as a joke or take advantage of you.”

Yuri rolled his lower lip between his teeth and bit. All the days and nights he spent cold, hungry and fearful for his life came crashing back to him. Too many times he’d gone days without food after giving all his rations to the younger inhabitants like Teddie. He knew he could go days without food or warmth and stay sane because of all the neglect he’d endured. As a result, suspicion of others wasn’t just a byproduct of outside stimuli. It was literally threaded into how his brain functioned day-to-day.

“Yeah, thought so,” Yosuke half-laughed. “I know I’m a pain in the ass, but it’s because I want to help you. I want to see you succeed.”

Yuri cocked his head. “But why?”

He winced at the blunt question. “Jeez. Straight for the jugular, huh? Do I really come off as that much of a jerk?”

The self-deprecating words didn’t sway Yuri’s attention.

“I mean it,” he said evenly. The young man was growing more and more suspicious of Yosuke’s kindness. “You and Chie just met us. Why are you both laying so much on the line for two strangers?”

Then, like lightning, an epiphany struck its mark.

“There must be something in it for you.”

A look of guilt flashed across Yosuke’s face. It was only a flicker—but it was enough to puncture the visual threshold. It helped that Yuri had also glimpsed the expression often in his own reflection that he could decipher it anywhere. “Thought so.”

Yuri didn’t have to turn his head to feel Chie’s gaze on the back of his head. Nevertheless, he didn’t take his eyes off Yosuke’s nervously shifting form.

After a few tense moments that even rendered Teddie silent, a sigh rolled through Yosuke’s entire frame. “Yu—no. Yuri. Listen, please.”

He offered no response but also didn’t make any move to speak. Yosuke took his inaction as an invitation to continue, albeit cautiously.

“Yuri, you wouldn’t be here if there was any risk for you,” Yosuke said, and it was the truth.

“That incident on the trains seems to contradict that statement,” Yuri deadpanned.

“Now that’s not fair,” Yosuke retorted with a smirk. “I mean, I know I’m annoying, but you can’t fault me for bad luck.  _ Some _ of that was out of our control.”

He tried to keep a straight face, but it was impossible. A smile broke his severe expression, and to Yuri’s surprise, he felt a surge of relief. Being wary of others was exhausting, but it was how he’d grown up. It was the only way of life that he knew. Adjusting would be a big challenge … perhaps even a bigger one than finding his real family.

“You’re right,” Yuri admitted. “I’m sorry, Yosuke.”

At this, the tawny-haired man turned pink. “Oh, no! D-Don’t apologize! You haven’t even done anything wrong! If anything, it’s me and Chie who should apologize.”

_ “What!” _ Chie cawed from ahead.

Yosuke ignored his friend’s offended response and continued, “I mean, even after everything hat just went down with that train, you’re sticking it out! You looked a near-death experience in the face like it was nothing! And as for us, I mean, you probably don’t even need Chie and me to guide you. You could have just taken that train ticket to Paris and ran, but you’re still here. That’s really brave of you, and I…”

He was rambling now, but for some reason, Yuri was still absolutely captivated by his words.

“Some others would just turn away from the world completely, but look at you,” Yosuke sighed as he took a step back to take in Yuri’s entire, snow-dusted form. “You’re out here in the middle of nowhere chasing down your identity. You’re reaching out to find your true self. That’s…really incredible.”

It was Yuri’s turn to flush. Thanks to the chilly air, his face turned absolutely raspberry at Yosuke’s compliments.

Chie must have sensed the mounting energy between them, because less than a moment later, she stepped between the two to create a few feet of space.

“Hey, Yosuke,” she said with surprising calmness, “I think there is a trading post coming up. Why don’t you and Teddie go grab us some food? Try and get something hot.”

Surprisingly, Yosuke seemed perfectly fine with the idea. “Huh? Oh! No problem. If you were in charge of buying our meals, we’d be eating nothing but meat for the rest of this trip.”

She rolled her eyes. “You say that like it’s a bad thing!”

Yuri and Yosuke glimpsed each other’s faces and shared small smiles.

“Fine, fine,” Yosuke acquiesced with his usual touch of theatrical candor. He even lifted shook his head and bobbed his hands above his shoulders, as if he was a stage actor. “I’ll get you some…bear meat or something.”

Teddie gasped in mock horror. The spell of silence that had been cast on him during Yuri and Yosuke’s brief squabble seemed to be broken. Then again, it really hadn’t lasted that long to begin with.

“Not you,” Yosuke laughed. “Hey. You’re going to come and help me with the food, right? What do you want to eat, Ted?”

“Oh!” Teddie piped up, eyes suddenly sparkling. “I want filet mignon, Yosuke! With champagne and escargots!”

Three blinks. Then, Yosuke said, “Ah, what the hell. You never know. I’ll see what I can do.”

The man then turned his attention to Yuri. “Well, what about you? Craving anything specific? Maybe some spiced kasha? Or, what about stroganoff?”

“Oh. You know, I’ve actually never had stroganoff,” Yuri replied with his usual deadpan honesty.

At this, Yosuke dipped his head back and let out a joyful laugh.

“See? You’re acting like a prince already!”

Yuri’s wish was Yosuke’s command, it seemed.

While he and a very enthusiastic Teddie flounced off to grab whatever food they could score from the crumbling trading post, Chie and Yuri searched the premises for somewhere to rest. They brushed off the least disgusting log they could find and took a seat to rest their legs. While Yuri could feel a fiery burn smoldering deep in his calves and quads, Chie seemed to be raring to go again after a few impressive stretches.

As she tucked her head to her chest and leaned forward to grasp the tips of her boots, Yuri watched in sincere amazement. He could barely stretch to reach his ankle.

“No wonder you’re trudging through the snow like it’s nothing,” he said admiringly. “You’re pretty athletic, Chie.”

The girl exhaled a ‘thanks’ before snapping her body upright, her face shining with renewed vigor. “Woohoo! Alright! I’m already feeling more charged up! Once that stupid Yosuke comes back with some food, then I’ll really be raring to go!”

Yuri rubbed his hands anxiously to generate some warmth. He had no idea how she wasn’t freezing. “You and Yosuke seem like really good friends, huh?”

“Aw, we’re more than that,” Chie replied.

Yuri’s heart lurched, and not in a good way. “Wait. You are?”

“Yeah,” she mentioned easily. “We’re like siblings! Yosuke’s like my goofy younger brother. I mean, he’s technically older than me by a couple of months, but I have to watch him because he’s always getting into trouble.”

Yuri relaxed visibly. “Oh. I see.”

Chie seemed to eye him knowingly over the shoulder of her bulky coat, but she didn’t say anything.

“What about you and Teddie?” she asked as she drew her knees toward her chest. “You two also seem really close. I can imagine you two have been through a lot together.”

At this, Yuri agreed completely. “Well, we have. We kind of grew up together in the orphanage. One day, he just showed up. Neither of us are certain about our ages, but I know I’m older than him. The day he showed up, he could barely walk. And obviously…he doesn’t remember who his family is either.”

She nodded in solidarity. “It’s hard.”

The sentiment threaded through his muscles and bones and snaked right into his heart.

Her statement was hardly grandiose, but it still rendered him temporarily dumbstruck. She knew better than to try and console him or offer meager words of encouragement. It was refreshing to have someone else who was also seasoned from years of hardship just agree with his reality.

After a beat, he replied, “It really is.”

Memories of his dark past threatened to creep back upon him. Days spent toiling in labor and night spent shivering alone within the orphanage’s hallowed halls.

He risked a glance downward at fingers, lined with white scars and bulky with callouses. They’d been worn down and sliced to ribbons too many times to count. Some of his fingers were crooked from being broken and healing multiple times without proper medical treatment. They certainly weren’t the soft hands of a noble prince.

Before the shadows of his dark past could ensnare him fully, Yuri redirected his attention back onto Chie. He  _ had _ to stay focused.

“Tell me more about yourself,” Yuri said. He worried briefly that he’d sounded too curt, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I mean, we’re going to be traveling quite a ways together, and it’s going to be hard for us to get along if we stay strangers the rest of the way.”

His statement brought a smile to her face. Then again, Chie didn’t seem like the type of person who needed any prompting to talk about herself or anything else that interested her.

For the next few minutes, Chie proceeded to tell Yuri about her life leading up to their encounter. How she’d grown up alongside Yosuke, how she had wanted to by a law enforcement officer or soldier, and her love for dogs. Somewhere between describing her daily training routine and her phobia of insects, the woman also casually let it slip that the love of her life also happened to reside in Paris. In fact, she was a distant relative of Prince Dojima and served as a lady-in-waiting. She was also the head of a successful family of inns that had garnered so much popularity in Japan that they’d started to spread overseas. The woman seemed to have one hell of a resume, and yet, Yuri was more preoccupied with wondering how Chie had met someone of such high social standing.

“I can’t wait for you to meet her, Yuri,” Chie gushed. “She’s smart, funny and so beautiful! I almost dropped on one knee and proposed the first time we met.”

He lifted a silver brow. “She’s a noble, I take it?”

“Yes, but trust me, she’s not like the others,” Chie said, almost defensively. “She’s part of the Amagi family. They’re notorious all across France for their new luxury hotel brand. People are traveling from across the world just to experience them in-person!”

“Is that so?” Yuri asked. The name met nothing to him, but that didn’t mean much.

“Her name is Yukiko and...she’s…”

Chie sighed dreamily. Her tawny eyes glazed over as she stared ahead, most likely visualizing how she wished her love would suddenly appear from between the frosty trees head of them, like a Snow Maiden straight from a fairy tale.

He was amused by her. It seemed that even a street-savvy ruffian like Chie had a gooey, lovesick center.

She was so caught up in her daydreams that the sound of crunching snow and aroma of seared meat seemed to evade her. Yuri, on the other hand, turned around to greet Yosuke and Teddie with a smile. It seemed their mission to seek out and find food had ended successfully.

The duo had returned with packets of spicy and savory kasha, spit-roasted meats, stroganoff dressed with sour cream and paprika, puff pastry pirozhki, and pelmeni with an assortment of mincemeat fillings. Instead of champagne, they’d brought back a hefty jug of strawberry kompot.

The four gathered atop the log and fashioned a small picnic out of their haul.

All the while, they continued to chat and talk like old friends. It was surprisingly easy for their personalities to meld together. Yosuke carried on about how Teddie had nearly gotten them kicked out of the trading post after he flirted with the head merchant’s wife, while Teddie brushed off the encounter altogether and asserted that Yosuke was merely jealous of flirting techniques. He even offered to serve as Yosuke’s mentor and teach him a few techniques.

Chie agreed. Yosuke vehemently disagreed.

“Hey, you don’t think I’m a lost cause,” Yosuke asked as he aimed puppy-dog eyes straight at Yuri. “Right, partner?”

Then, Yosuke stopped.

“Oops, sorry!” he recanted sheepishly. “I mean…what do you think, Yuri?”

The world seemed to shift. Yuri had been invited into the conversation, not as a pawn, but as a companion. Yosuke really did seem to view the two of them as being on equal ground, and perhaps Yuri was softening up, but he was starting to believe it. At least, he wanted to believe it.

“I don’t think you’re a lost cause,” Yuri offered mercifully.

Yosuke’s amber eyes sparkled like freshly corked champagne. “Really? You mean it?”

A warm buzzing filled Yuri’s chest. “Of course. I’m a lousy liar, after all.”

The moment was immediately spoiled by Chie, who laid a hand on Yuri’s shoulder. “Yuri, it’s okay. You don’t have to lie to make him feel better.”

“He’s not lying!” Yosuke barked back shrilly.

At this, Yuri laughed out loud.

It would take a little time, but as Yuri took his first bite of stroganoff, he felt like things were finally coming together.

Maybe it was the warmth of the food in his belly or the warmth of the company he was bonding with, but for the first time in a while, the cold didn’t bother Yuri as much as it usually did.

* * *

For the first time in forever, Yuri felt alive.

It was ironic because, in many ways, his life was more unstable than it had ever been before.

At least the orphanage, as terrible as it had been, had been a destination. It had been a place to call home. A reference point, if nothing more. He ended and began all his days in the same dark room amongst the same watery voices.

Now, no two days were alike.

One time, the quartet slept in a train hauling hay across the countryside. Another time, Yosuke and Chie haggled with a wealthy noble in a horse-drawn carriage to let them ride for the rest of the days.

Even Yuri and Teddie had bolstered new skills throughout their trials.

Teddie was incredibly charismatic and could talk the crew out of almost anything. Almost. There had been one time where Chie had challenged a foe in a local tavern and unknowingly defeated the owner’s son so severely that all four of them had to stay awake the rest of the evening and into the next morning washing dishes. Even Teddie’s incessant persuasion and coquettish looks hadn’t been enough to get them out of that one occasion.

Lessons about royalty broke up the long periods of travel. He studied the family tree of the royal family. He learned the nuances of walking lightly and with perfect posture. He even trained his voice to have a different lilt to sound more intellectual, but in Yuri’s opinion, it only served to make him seen more condescending. Apparently, that was par for the course with royals, so he decided to let it slide.

All the while Yuri proved to be a fast learner. He took to each lesson naturally, more like he was relearning forgotten behaviors than learning new ones.

While Chie, thanks to her shared past with Yukiko, primarily instructed Yuri on mannerisms and high-society cultural aspects that were commonplace in the royal court, Yosuke assumed the role of teaching Yuri social cues and conversational finessing.

After Chie would finish a lesson on how to properly lead a waltz, Yosuke would hold mock-interviews with him. He quizzed him about art and culture. He taught him how to avoid conversational lulls, successfully volley passive-aggressive remarks, and read people’s responses to tell truth from lies.

“Some people will try to make you slip up,” Yosuke warned during one of their lessons. “I say, trip them right back.”

The two would also about more general subjects, such as their pasts and personal interests. In fact, Yosuke insisted that Yuri talk about himself and his past more.

“Why do you want to know?” Yuri asked.

He was sitting across from Yosuke at a vacant train station outside the western German border. The bitter chill of Russian winter had ebbed and gave way to climate more reminiscent of early spring. It was still frigid, but far from unbearable or dangerous.

The group had arrived at the station a few hours before dawn. The lights from the depot were hazy clouds against a foggy lavender sky. Somewhere in the distance, a rooster cawed. The sound was like cannon fire amidst the quiet.

Yosuke and Yuri were seated in the waiting area while Chie and Teddie had hopped down onto the tracks and were amusing themselves by tossing around some of the pebbles from the rock bed located beneath the rails. While Chie was content with just hurling the small rocks against the metal and trying to get a further ricochet with each attempt, Teddie was fascinated at the prospect of finding precious jewels on the ground.

She then started picking up the stones and throwing Teddie a ‘ruby’ or ‘emerald’ as far as she could. Every time, he’d bolt after the stone and reach up into the air to catch it. He’d promptly examine it and give Chie a thumbs-down from afar as if to say, ‘Not this one. Try again!’

He looked like a puppy playing fetch with its owner. No wonder Chie was having so much fun. Actually, both of them appeared to be having the time of their lives.

Meanwhile, in the immediate space across from him, Yosuke merely shrugged in response to the question. “No reason. I just know what it feels like to have nobody to talk to. So, just talk about whatever you want. Whatever is on your mind that you’ve been aching to share.”

It was an overwhelming but welcome proposition. “I can talk about anything I want?”

“Anything you want.”

He shifted eagerly. “And you really don’t care?

Yosuke’s legs were crossed atop one of the platform’s many concrete benches. His elbows rested on the tips of his knees, so bony they poked out from beneath his trousers like crochet needles.

“Not at all,” he said. “I’m all ears.”

It was at that moment that Yuri realized something. Yosuke’s frequent and sometimes annoying conversations and insistence on constant communication wasn’t just a lesson for their upcoming venture toward the throne. It was only one part of a much larger hidden agenda.

Yosuke was encouraging Yuri to become a person. After spending most of his time as a plaster mold of emotions, a shell of a human, Yosuke wanted to see him grow and develop himself. He wanted him to feel human again.

It wasn’t a matter of helping him assume an identity. It was a matter of helping him remember the person he was; who he had been all along.

He wanted to bring Yuri home, not just in the physical world, but inside his own body and mind as well.

There was so much about Yosuke’s personality and motivations that remained a mystery to him. However, it was becoming clearer and clearer that Yosuke was a master of turning situations around to favor himself or people he cared about. It seemed that he could turn any negative situation into a positive one.

If Yuri was a wildcard, then Yosuke was a magician. He was a master of making everything out of nothing.

And so, Yuri began to talk.

The floodgates gave way, and he told Yosuke everything he could think of. Everything from how he’d awoken at the orphanage with a splitting ache on his head to how he saw the staff members accept personal bribes in exchange for favors. Sometimes, families approached the orphanage about adopting the children inside, and only sometimes for a cost. Sometimes King Moron couldn’t kick a child out the door fast enough. It was one less mouth to feed, after all. Yuri also observed how, sometimes, children that frequently misbehaved were often sent away with one man or woman in the middle of the night with no announcement. It was obvious they weren’t being taken to a loving family. The livelihood of children—human beings—was exchanged hands as easily as the fat stacks of bills.

He talked about biting into pillowcases to stop his teeth from chattering. He even recalled how, one time, a girl was caught with a boy in her bed. She was beaten with a belt until she was too weak to scream. She and the boy vanished the next night and never returned. Yuri never even learned their names and was too scared to ask.

Much like Chie, Yosuke offered solidarity instead of pity. “That’s terrible, Yuri. Nobody deserves to grow up like that. Especially good people like you and Ted.”

Teddie. That’s right. Teddie had probably just as many horrors, if not more, than he had. Yosuke had also obviously had a troubled life considering his survivalist lifestyle and was probably bored of hearing someone else talk about hardship and perseverance ad nauseum. Suddenly, going on and on about his unchangeable past seemed hideously self-indulgent.

Yuri decided to switch gears and talk about himself for the first time. That would be new territory for both of them.

He told Yosuke about how he enjoyed cleaning and keeping things organized, but absolutely hated laundry. Bedsheets were his least favorite item to clean and replace. He revealed how he would sometimes sneak out late in the evening to visit a small hoard of cats that would hunt for scraps in the waste disposal behind the building as well.

“Ah, so you’re a cat person!” Yosuke said. “It suits you.”

He hummed guiltily. “I seem to get along well with them more than dogs, but I actually love all animals.”

“Is that why you’re friends with Ted?”

“Hey. Be nice.”

Yosuke sat back easily. “So, while you were visiting the cats, did you go through the garbage for food too?”

He flinched. “Um, well …”

Yosuke’s laugh was papery. “Hey, no judgment. I’ve been there. You have to do what you have to do, right?”

Yuri perked up like a cat who’d spotted a mousehole. “So you know?”

Softly, almost begrudgingly, Yosuke nodded in agreement. “I do know.”

It was then Yosuke’s turn to talk about his own upbringing, which began with serving the palace and doing menial jobs for the serving staff. Yosuke spoke grandly about the royal family and the young boy, Prince Yu.

“He was wonderful,” Yosuke recalled. He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. Slipping back into the memory came so naturally to him.

Yuri smiled despite the growing tension. He knew what memories would inevitably follow. If Yosuke had worked at the palace as a young child, he would have obviously been onsite for the deadly revolution that had taken the lives of the royal Narukami bloodline.

He didn’t want to press for details, but he could only imagine the horror Yosuke had witnessed. The blood, the smoke, the tears … it must have been unbearable.

“It was scary,” Yosuke admitted. “But you know what matters? I made it out alive. Not a lot of other people did.”

Then, his eyes shifted to Yuri. “Or, maybe one person did. At least, I hope so.”

Yuri was too busy staring at the tumbling leaves between his feet to catch Yosuke’s gaze. The words seemed to fall to the breeze as well as a train whistle sounded in the distance. The strident noise sent murders of crows flying overhead, like flecks of pepper blowing across the light sky.

Even though the train was still far off, Chie and Teddie joined hands and scrambled off the tracks and back onto the platform. Their ride would be here soon.

“I’m sorry,” Yuri said over the whistle, “I couldn’t hear you. What did you say?”

Yosuke locked away a secret smile.

“I was just talking more about the prince,” he told him. “Even though I wasn’t allowed to see him a lot because my status wasn’t high enough, he still sought me out and talked to me. Maybe it’s because we were similar ages?”

“Maybe he was lonely,” Yuri offered.

“Maybe,” he said, his tone more certain than his response might otherwise indicate. “Anyway, one day, he even gave me a gift.”

Yosuke leaned forward and dipped a hand inside one of the many layers of clothing located beneath his coat. A moment later, he produced a small nesting doll in the shape of a frog. It was so random that it brought a smile to Yuri’s face.

“Hey, don’t laugh!” Yosuke said as he gently kicked Yuri in the calf. “I know it looks silly, but I’ve held on to this little guy ever since he gave it to me. It’s like a lucky charm.”

He then looked back down at the wooden creature in his hand and rubbed his thumb over its back fondly. “You know, the prince didn’t have to think of me … but he showed that he cared anyway. I like to think that, maybe, I was special to him.”

Yuri’s entire face softened. He reached out and laid tender, crooked fingertips across Yosuke’s bare wrist. “Well, if I was the prince, I think it’s a safe bet that you were.”

The frog ornament’s lacquered finish looked nothing short of pristine against the pallid tone of Yosuke’s skin. He obviously kept the keepsake in great condition. Even over a decade later, it still looked like it could have been purchased from a vendor stall yesterday.

“It must seem silly of me,” Yosuke husked. He sounded a little emotional. “Me carrying this little guy around.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m in any position to talk,” Yuri reminded him as he reached into his own pocket and produced his prized pocket watch.

Yuri’s watch was a shining example of the same pristine attention that preserved Yosuke’s possession so perfectly. There were no chips or cracks in the finish and the metal retained its luxuriously yellow shine without looking brassy. Even the message inside, ‘Together in Paris’, was as perfectly legible as it had been the day he woke up with his body curled around the watch in a vice grip.

“Look at that,” Yosuke laughed as they locked eyes again. “It looks like we have even more in common than we thought.”

The two both chuckled as they fawned over their mementos together.

However, unbeknownst to either of them, the two men shared the same uncanny thought as they stared at each other’s possessions.

_ “Why does his look so familiar?” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wonderful readers, thank you so much for your patience. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you so much for reading!


	9. They Just Forgot - Romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four companions finally make it on the last leg of their journey to Paris - the boat ride. Yosuke decides to surprise Teddie and Yuri with a thoughtful gift to get them prepared for their visit to the city before Yuri has his final tsarevich lesson - how to waltz.

On that final train ride to the port, Yosuke was unable to sleep. They could only afford tickets in the sitting room car due to the extra expenses they had incurred on the trip, so the four of them were sprawled out across the hard, wooden bench they were sharing and the floor below. On the bench across from them were two children traveling with their grandfather who Teddie had played with all afternoon; they were now curled up on either side of him while he nodded off while sitting in his seat. Yosuke was also seated with Chie’s legs in his lap; she was laying across the bench and using her bag as a pillow. Yuri and Teddie were both on the floor, with Teddie clutching Yuri for comfort. Yosuke’s eyes were trained to the other man, who was honestly the cause of his restlessness. 

‘I can’t believe I called him partner,’ Yosuke thought, mentally kicking himself. After how careful he had been all trip, keeping his childhood memory and this enigmatic young man separate from each other, he had finally slipped. Yosuke almost felt like he had betrayed Yu somehow, who he had secretly called his partner in crime, or partner for short. In getting to know Yuri and having him warm up to him, the resemblance between him and his childhood friend was growing harder to ignore – it was almost like in getting to know Yuri, he was losing some of those solid memories of Yu as they blended together in his mind. They had so many similar mannerisms and tastes, and even more uncanny sometimes Yosuke would share a childhood memory, and Yuri would respond almost as if he was _there_. Then there was that damn pocket watch that Yosuke knew he had seen before but couldn’t quite picture from where.

Yosuke also felt a gnawing guilt after Yuri had half-discovered the scam in place by him and Chie. He had somehow convinced Yuri to go along with the idea and let his line of questioning drop, but as Yosuke discovered more and more about what he had been through and how he had a similarly rough life in the orphanage to Yosuke on the streets, Yosuke began to feel even worse about the fact they were still deceiving him. The trade-off – Yuri getting adopted into a family that would love him while he and Chie split the prize money – didn’t seem so great once Yosuke really thought about how it would always be tinged with deceit. No matter how much Yuri and Teddie deserved a better life, he knew that Yuri wouldn’t want it at the expense of hiding the truth. 

What’s worse is he seemed to actually trust him a little now, based on how he had opened up to him. Yosuke bit his lip before shifting, eliciting a grumble from Chie who shifted but stayed fast asleep. His eyes trained back to Yu’s sleeping face, so much gentler than it had been earlier on in the trip. He looked calm and relaxed and closer to his age which he estimated to be the same as Yosuke and Chie’s although he wasn’t entirely sure due to his amnesia. Yosuke’s gaze softened without him realizing it, and he found himself finally starting to get drowsy. It seemed only moments had passed before he was being roughly shaken awake. “Wake up, sleepy head!” Chie shouted in his ear, causing Yosuke to grimace before blearily rubbing his eyes. 

“I fell asleep?” he said in surprise, while Chie and Teddie both began to laugh. “What?” he asked, grumpily confused by their actions.

Yuri suddenly stepped forward, refraining from laughing although he had a smile in his eyes, as he reached forward and fiddled with Yosuke’s hair, fixing it to where it was its normal mess instead of sticking up where he had been resting his head against the train window. “There,” he said, satisfied with his handywork as he pulled away.

Yosuke suddenly felt hot under the collar, and he quickly stood up, feeling dizzy for a moment from the sudden movement. Yuri caught his arm and steadied him, while Chie handed him his bag with a knowing smirk. Yosuke narrowed his eyes at her while she grinned before twirling Teddie around. “Soon, we’ll be in Paris and I’ll be able to see my love!” she said excitedly, and Teddie eagerly joined in the fun.

“I am beary excited to see the lovely lady!” he giggled as they spun around.

Yosuke shook his head at their antics. “I wonder how long until she cracks one of her corny jokes…” he muttered, causing Yuri to raise an eyebrow.

“You also know this noblewoman?” he asked in surprise, and Yosuke nodded.

“Not as well as Chie, obviously, but I saw her once or twice when I worked at the palace,” he replied. He and Chie had kept her true background quiet from the other two; although they were no longer in Russia, they never knew who would be listening in and Chie’s blood ties to the royal family still put her life at risk. They just assumed she had also worked in the palace. Yosuke was honestly surprised Yuri hadn’t asked more questions about his relationship with the prince, especially once he had uncovered their plan to train him, but it honestly worked out better for them that he didn’t ask too many questions so Yosuke didn’t want to pry.

As they stepped off the train, Yosuke glanced at the clock at the station before calculating a few things in his head. He glanced at Yu, looking over his shabby clothes from the orphanage, and thought through their remaining expenses for the trip. He was sure once they were in Paris Yukiko would be treating them, so they just needed enough to get them to her estate in town. Based on their current funds…he may have _just_ enough… “Hey, carry this for me?” Yosuke asked, handing Chie his bag.

She immediately let out a sound of protest, even though it wasn’t like she couldn’t handle the weight. “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded. “Why do I have to carry _your_ bag?”

“I’ve got a quick errand to run. I’ll catch up,” he said with a wink before jogging off. 

“Hey, get back here Hanamura!” she called, while both Teddie and Yuri looked on in confusion.

“Should I go after him?” Yosuke overheard Yuri ask, and Chie let out a sigh. Yosuke could imagine her resignedly shaking her head.

“If he decides he wants to actually run, you’d never be able to catch him,” she admitted. One thing Yosuke had always been since a kid was fast, which was a useful trait to have as a young thief.

About half an hour later, Yosuke met up with the others at the dock to the ship, with a mysterious bag in tow. When the others asked about it, he just gave them a secretive smile while keeping his mouth shut for a change. Fortunately, due to other passengers for their voyage being stranded by the same train disaster they had survived, the ship had been delayed for several days as they had found alternative transport as well. They had been a little nervous about arriving late and what they would do with their tickets, but it seemed everything had worked out in the end somehow. It was almost like now that they had met Yuri and Teddie, their luck had changed for the better. “Ready to get this show on the road?” Yosuke asked, grinning at the other three, and Teddie let out a cheer while Chie shoved his bag into his chest, an irritated look on her face. She grabbed Teddie’s arm and made her way up the to the ship, while Yosuke sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

“I think she was worried about you,” Yuri leaned over conspiratorially, before adding, “You did cut it pretty close.”

Yosuke winced, because he could tell by the pointed comment that they had all probably been a little worried. “I got kind of caught up,” he said, gripping the mysterious package nervously as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “They can’t get aboard without the tickets though, so let’s not keep them waiting.” Yosuke hurried after them, rifling through his pockets with his free hand in order to grab their tickets, while Yuri tilted his head and watched him for a moment before following. Yosuke seemed nervously excited over something, and he couldn’t help but wonder what was in the bag he was clutching so dearly.

Once Yosuke got their tickets settled, they went through inspection before getting general directions to where the small cabin they would be sharing was located. They took a moment to enjoy the fresh air and excitement on deck, Teddie waving joyfully to all of the onlookers on the dock below, before heading to their cabin to put away their things. Once they were inside, Chie finally laid it out on him. “So, what is this errand that was so important that made you rush off without telling us what was going on?” she snapped, barely refraining from snatching the package out of his hands.

Yosuke blushed, his fingers playing with the crease where the bag was folded over at the top. His eyes drifted to Yuri before looking away again. “I figured before we got to Paris, we should probably get these two something a bit nicer to wear,” he admitted. Both Yuri and Teddie’s clothes were ill-fitting; it would be hard to pass off Yuri as the missing prince in what he was wearing. While Yosuke and Chie were wearing a hodge-podge of clothing, they at least had managed to scrounge up clothes that fit them over the years. He handed Yuri the package, who had shot him a wide eyed, surprised look, before quickly saying, “We should probably give them some time to change and try these on,” before rushing out of the cabin in embarrassment. 

He had caught the stunned look on Chie’s face and the overjoyed expression on Teddie’s out of the corner of his eye as he left, and he soon heard Chie shouting for him to wait up as she chased after him. Yosuke didn’t stop until they were above deck, suddenly feeling stifled and needing the fresh air to cool off and breathe again. Chie stood silently next to him for several long moments, studying his expression before letting out a sigh. “You’ve got it bad, huh?” she said before leaning back against the railing.

“What do you mean?” Yosuke asked, and Chie shook her head. 

“I think you know what I mean. How much…no, wait,” she bit her lip, before taking a deep breath and releasing it. “You know, that’s probably the first time those two have ever had anything like that.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Something bought specifically for them,” she replied. “We’ve had each other at least but they didn’t have any money so they wouldn’t have been able to do something like that. What you did…it was very kind.” She looked at him carefully, while Yosuke bashfully tried to avoid her gaze. “I think you may have an underlying motivation though,” she muttered.

“Yeah, making sure they look more presentable once we get to Paris,” he retorted, and she narrowed her eyes at him. Yosuke stubbornly refused to back down, however, and she rolled her eyes.

“Whatever you say,” she said sarcastically, hands on her hips. “I’m just afraid you’re going to end up hurt at the end of all of this…”

Yosuke was completely distracted from hearing her reply due to the fact that Yuri and Teddie had chosen that moment to step outside. Teddie looked dapper in a blue and white striped jacket, white cloth shirt, and red bowtie. He finally looked a little more mature and they could tell that it had given Teddie a burst of confidence. “Yosukeee!” he said excitedly, rushing forward to throw his arms around him gratefully. He noticed pretty quickly when Yosuke didn’t protest or show any reaction, however, that the brunet seemed distracted by something. He gave Yosuke a knowing look before going to stand next to Chie, who was also shaking her head.

Yosuke’s eyes were of course trained on Yuri, who had more shyly followed Teddie onto the deck. Yosuke had been able to correctly guess his size, which was not only slightly taller than himself but also broader, allowing Yosuke to pick out an outfit that perfectly fit his form. Yuri had on a blue button up sleeve shirt, dark gray waistcoat that he had latched his pocket watch onto, the gold chain glistening brilliantly across his chest, and long trousers that actually fit and hugged his long legs. “How do I look?” he asked nervously, hand rubbing the back of his head, as he looked at Yosuke hopefully for an opinion. 

Yosuke could only stare at him, dumbfounded, for several long moments, causing Yu to tilt his head in confusion. “Is it not good?” he asked.

“You look handsome, sensei! Tell him, Yosuke,” Teddie replied, smacking Yosuke on the arm. It finally seemed to knock some sense back into him.

“Yeah, you look good,” Yosuke stammered, cheeks bright red. “I’m glad they seem to fit perfectly! More importantly though, how do you like them?” Yosuke looked both nervous and eager for his reply, and Yuri stared down at the cuff of his new shirt, picking at it for a moment.

“I don’t know what to say. No one…has ever done anything like this for us before,” he admitted. This seemed different from the offer of the train ride to Paris or the lessons or any of the other things Chie and Yosuke had done for them. Even if there was some sort of ulterior motive – which Yuri was sincerely doubting even if Yosuke may try to convince himself otherwise – the care that had been put into both outfits and kindness behind the action spoke volumes. Things fell into an awkward silence that was eventually broken up by the sound of music from a band playing on the upper decks for the first class ticket holders.

“Oh, I know!” Chie finally spoke up. “There’s one lesson we still haven’t taught you, Yuri.” Yosuke and Yuri gave her matching confused looks, while Teddie perked up.

“And what lesson is that?” Yosuke asked.

“He still needs to learn how to dance,” she said, eyes glittering in amusement. “And we both know who the better dancer out of the two of us is.”

Yosuke’s face suddenly blanched. “No, I can’t…” he started to protest. Chie suddenly stomped on his foot, causing him to yelp while rubbing at it. “What was that for?” he complained.

“I’m just reminding you what would happen to our dear Yuri if I was the one to try to teach him instead,” she said, not looking the least bit ashamed.

Yosuke grumbled to himself, before turning to look at Yuri. He seemed nervous all of a sudden, and he rubbed his hands on his pants. “I suppose you probably do need to learn at least to waltz…” he said.

“You know how to dance?” Yuri asked in surprise, and Yosuke nodded.

“When Yu…the prince was taking lessons. He would practice with me sometimes. He always said I caught on quickly and was the better dancer. He hated having to dance with his cousins and the other little girls but never seemed to mind dancing with me,” Yosuke chuckled. He held out his hand to Yuri, who hesitated a moment, staring Yosuke in the eyes searchingly before taking his hand.

“Maybe because dancing with you felt right,” Yuri replied as Yosuke pulled him closer and helped him position his hands the right way. He then took one of Yuri’s hands before placing his other on the small of his back.

“You know what, he said the same thing once,” Yosuke said softly, almost to himself. It honestly felt like at the moment they were the only two on the deck, caught in a weird space that was both memory and reality wrapped up in the soft tendrils of music from above. Yosuke began to lead them into the waltz, finding that Yuri’s feet seemed to naturally follow his own without a lot of explanation needed on his part. It really did feel natural, like they had done this before, even though Yuri had never danced at the orphanage and Yosuke hadn’t had the occasion since he was a boy.

“You dance really well,” Yosuke complimented as the spun around the deck, eyes trained on the other. Most beginners would find themselves watching their feet to avoid tripping up their steps, but Yuri had kept his eyes trained on Yosuke’s face the whole time. “Are you sure they don’t have a secret dancing school at that orphanage of yours?”

Yuri let out a laugh. “I’m quite sure. I think I just have a wonderful teacher,” he smiled, eyes crinkling closed a little at how wide it was. Yosuke lost his breath for a moment, for he realized that was the most genuinely happy smile he had ever seen cross the other man’s face. It was so endearing, and reminded him so much of the smiles the prince had only saved for when he was around, that he felt his heart throb painfully in his chest for a moment.

“You can hardly call this teaching. You just took to it naturally,” Yosuke grinned. Suddenly, the boat caught a wave and rocked a little harder than normal, causing Yuri to finally stumble into Yosuke, who pulled him against his chest in order to steady him. “You ok?” Yosuke asked, breathless as his heart pounded in his chest, and Yuri nodded, before leaning against him even more.

“Yeah…” he said, staring up at Yosuke in a daze. “I’ll be ok once we stop spinning.”

“We have stopped,” Yosuke teased, finding himself drawing even closer to Yuri as if a magnet was drawing them together.

“Are you sure?” Yuri asked, eyes sliding shut as he also leaned in toward Yosuke. Before their lips could fully meet, there was another rock of the boat that almost pushed Yosuke back over the edge of the railing, until Yuri grabbed his jacket and yanked him back into place.

“Thanks,” Yosuke said, gasping for air as he wondered what had just happened. 

“Of course,” Yuri replied, patting Yosuke’s sleeve before escaping to the other side of the boat. Yosuke noticed that Teddie looked pretty disappointed, while Chie was giving them both an exasperated look.

“Can you still claim you don’t have it bad?” she murmured in his ear before heading off to the galley to get dinner for the night. Yosuke bit his lip before looking over at Yuri and Teddie, the latter who was laying compliments on the former for how lovely his dancing had looked. Honestly, Yosuke couldn’t deny his feelings to himself anymore at this point, and he knew he was definitely in trouble.


	10. Omen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With his previous plans foiled and even more challenges standing in his way, Adachi hatches a new plan to lure Yu to his death.

Red hot anger had cracked behind Adachi’s eyes like lightning when he watched the group hobble away from the train almost completely unscathed. They’d escaped beaten, but far from dead.

He could have cared less about the three guests. They were merely detestable side-characters that accompanied the villain of his story. 

Prince Yu was still breathing. The brat was alive and walking on two legs.  _ Dancing _ on two legs.

Not only was the silver-haired prince galavanting toward Paris like some romantic boys school refugee from a storybook, but now he was surrounded by a group of allies that Adachi now had to worry about surpassing.

Even now, as he spied on the group from his primordial dimension, Yu had the audacity to look like a lovesick teenager while dancing with some ruffian he’d scrounged up in Saint Petersburg. One of the damned orphans from the hellish orphanage he’d grown up had even pledged his devotion and followed him, much to Adachi’s chagrin. Without even trying, Yu had come out of his comatose forgetfulness and amassed a team of annoyingly cunning allies without so much as lifting a finger. It was so in-character for the spoiled, royal has-been that Adachi would have laughed if he hadn’t been so infuriated by his perfectly orchestrated plans going to waste.

What was even worse was that said ruffian _–_ Yosuke, he believed was his name _–_ was escorting his target right to the front gates of the remaining royal family members he’d tried so hard to eliminate over a decade ago. A conniving young man with no principles, bank account or property to his name was going to deliver Yu back to the throne on thing less than a silver platter, thus undoing all his hard work…all his suffering. It would be all for _nothing!_

The man was breathing so hard that he could almost push his tongue between the crevices in his teeth. How was it that he was being foiled by a group of vagabond nobodies? He was better than that.

Hell, he would show them firsthand how he was better than that!

Even the way that the two danced sickened him. The prince should be fighting for his every breath, not enjoying a waltz with a pushover conman. The union of the two wasn’t the only thing that spurred his hatred. Everything about their movements made him ill. From the way they stared into each other's eyes to the way their hands lingered on each other … it was disgraceful. 

It also gave him an idea. 

Aggravation made the dendrites in his brain spark and connect about just how grotesque and terrible his revenge could be. Adachi took perverse joy in imagining how he could create a vast illusion that could string the do-gooder prince along. 

If the prince insisted on not going down without a fight, he’d just have to come up with an infinitely more cruel way to make him stay down.

If frivolity and tender familial love were what Yu truly desired … then that’s what Adachi would give him.

He’d give it to him all the way to his grave.

The sorcerer got to work setting his plan into motion.

Images of the royal family still haunted Adachi's mind. Their faces, their clothes, their voices when they'd screamed in terror and begged for mercy … they were all clear as day to him. Doctoring some kind of an illusion to lure Yu away from the safety of his allies and into danger wouldn’t be hard. 

As the prince laid asleep, so tranquil and ignorant, all he had to do was convince him to rise from his bed and venture on deck. A little sleepwalking would trick. Then, Yu could do all the hard work for him. Once the dreams had lured him away from his bedside into what he thought would be the loving embrace of his family, the turbulent ocean could finish him off with ease. 

Even in the terrible storm, the moon was bright and pale as death. 

It was the perfect terrible omen for the prince’s last night on Earth. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	11. Starshine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voices call to Yuri in his sleep, and against his better judgment, he listens.

When Yuri was suddenly jostled from sleep, he thought at first that it was swishing motions of the choppy sea that had tossed him upright. That’s why, when his body lurched forward without his control, his eyes flew open. Faster than he could process his surroundings, he reached for the edge of the bed to stop himself from spilling out of his bunk and onto the floor.

Instead of finding a wooden bed frame, his fingers clenched at a softer material. His fingers wove through blades of grass and the smell of flowers hung in the air like a perfumed haze.

Once the crest of adrenaline calmed, his silver eyes made a visual confirmation of his strange surroundings. He observed firstly that he was completely absent from his bunk or the cold hollows of the boat.

Instead, he had awakened in a  _ field _ . A plain of green dotted with petite white flowers rivers that flowed with crystal clear tides.

His blinked, as if in a daze.

It had to be a dream, he thought instantly. The sheer bizarreness was too jarring.

He struggled to stand, feeling heavier than usual even though he’d gone to sleep in simple bedclothes. Upon looking down, he realized his belabored movements were due to the fact that his sleepwear had been replaced with obscenely royal clothing, including a frilled chemise decorated with what felt like pounds of frills. The color palette of his ensemble was ivory, cherry red, and robin’s egg blue. It was so obscenely extravagant that it looked more like a costume from a stage drama or opera than attire suitable for the real world.

His calloused fingers plucked at the fabric, soft and fairy-spun.

He muttered, “Have I … seen these clothes before?”

The logical and curious parts of his brain swirled together into a swampy concoction.

Drunk on brain fluids drowning his confused cerebellum, Yuri slowly began to traverse the fielded landscape. Contrary to how slow his body's movements felt, as if his limbs had been hollowed and filled with drying cement, moving through the field felt oddly fluid. He barely had to take a single step to feel like he could weightlessly bound across the stretches of wildflowers.

The scenery around him was almost as cheery as his outfit. The sky was the color of sherbet and butterflies were oddly plentiful. The temperature was warm, but his skin was still prickled with gooseflesh. Yuri felt the urge to blink a lot, like he always did when he got too close to the ocean or seawater, but there didn’t seem to be an ocean in sight. Only babbling brooks that carved veins into the field of green. He imagined all that water would have to empty into something.

With nowhere else to turn, Yuri traipsed along the riverbank, carefully to not crush any flowers or clovers. Bushels of wildflowers were such a rare sight in the dark countryside tundra that he’d called home for so long that it seemed like second nature to spare them any agony.

The further he walked, the busier the landscape around him became. It was as if some ethereal artist was dropping more and more touches into their moving, scenic painting. In addition to more bushels of wildflowers, other types of foliage became more plentiful. Flowering bushes and romantic willows began to pop up around him, surrounding him on a slowly enclosing cavern of greenery.

The sound of rushing water almost became louder. Almost too loud for how an idyllic countryside stream should sound.

Before Yuri could give the notion too much thought, a small dog came bounding out from behind a gathering of nearby rose bushes. The furry creature placed its paws on his shoulders, pushing hard against him.

The young man laughed at the dog’s playful antics and slowly nudged the creature back to the grassy floor. “Hey, little guy. Where did you come from?”

The dog barked and sprang ahead, following the same route that the butterflies were guiding him along. It seemed this friendly creature was also intent on guiding him forward.

After a few more delicate steps forward, a sound on the breeze caught his attention.

It sounded like a name.

He closed his eyes and strained his ears.

_ “Yuri!” _

It wasn’t his imagination. Someone was calling out to him!

Then, the voice began to distort and multiply.

“Yu, come over here!” a man’s voice called.

Yu? Was someone calling him? Once again, his brain failed to process the oddity. One verbal slip-up already paled in comparison to the strange world around him.

The stranger’s voice was also distracting. It was familiar and completely foreign all at the same time.

“Over here, darling!” another voice beckoned. Her words were overly annunciated, giving her a cultured and well-read accent. Again, the sound stirred a sense of nostalgia in him.

The voices seemed to be coming from beyond the edge of a cliff up ahead. Hiking up his long, heavy robes, he made a beeline for the rocky ledge.

About a dozen feet below his perch was a gaggle of swimmers paddling around in a crystal-clear lake. So, he’d been right about the nearby stream emptying into something.

Two people both donned in the same royal attire as him, floated in the waters below. They splashed each other gaily and spun though the waters, causing their beaded costumes to swirl about them like paper flutes.

Once more, the swimmers looked…familiar. They had faces of people he knew but couldn’t place the names of. It would have struck the young man as uncanny if he’d had more than an instant to think about it.

However, the strangers below him seemed intent on distracting him.

“Hello, starshine!” the man called merrily.

Yuri chuckled at the nickname. Too charmed to not reply, he waggled his fingers at the strange man. “Hello to you too, sir!”

“Where have you been?” another voice cried. This voice belonged to a woman. “We were worried about you!”

Her soft, ashy eyes stared up at him from beneath thick lashes. Gentle lines sculpted her pretty face and slightly crooked mouth. Her almond eyes were unnaturally white compared to her face, which was as pink as a cooked rock shrimp. Perhaps it was from the warm temperature, or maybe she was exhausted from swimming.

“Dive in, Yu!” the man called.

When Yuri glimpsed his visage more closely, he realized it was like looking in a mirror. He saw a slightly older version of himself staring back. They shared the same upturned eyes and prominent nose bridge. The man teeth bit into his lower lip, the same as Yuri’s bit whenever he was lost in thought.

“I shouldn’t!” Yuri called back. “Not in these clothes.”

In the heavy robes he was wearing, he’d certainly sink to the bottom in an instant.

The notion was met with disagreeing head shakes.

“Nonsense!” the man called back. His voice boomed like thunder despite the distance between him. “Look at us! We’re swimming just fine!”

It was true. The two seemed to be staying afloat without issue. It made the offer even more tempting.

“You won’t drown,” the woman said, her raspberry lips forming a wide grin. Her expression was still as a doll’s, even when a splash sent droplets of water skittering across her too-smooth skin. “Just jump in!”

* * *

Yu had bolted upright from his sleep so suddenly that Teddie, who had been practicing shadow puppets on a nearby wall to cope with a sudden bout of seasick insomnia, yelped in surprise. The sight of seeing his companion yanked upright like a marionette on strings made the boy jump to his feet in surprise.

“Yuri!” he gasped, keeping his voice low as to not wake Yosuke as well. One of his hands flew to his chest to cover his speeding heart. “Geez. You spooked me!”

No response.

“I tried to go to sleep but these roly-poly waves are making me nauseous!” Teddie supplemented with a sigh. “Are you seasick too?”

Yuri turned his head toward Teddie slowly. Teddie quickly realized something was wrong. His friend didn’t look right. His movements were slow but choppy. His visage, usually an even-keeled mask of focused attention on whatever or whoever was before him, was vacant. Borderline ghostly in its emptiness.

Yuri had gone to bed rosy-cheeked and breathless from his dance with Yosuke.

Now, as he stared at his friend’s face, his skin was pale as death. Two silver eyes, like coins on the eyes of the dead, stared ahead blankly. He was staring at nothing and everything all at once.

Teddie rose from his seat and rounded the bed. He laughed nervously at his friend’s lack of expression. “Yuri?”

His friend’s face followed him slowly, saying nothing.

“You’re scaring me,” Teddie said, voice becoming more serious. His whisper broke in favor of a louder tone. “Hey. Are you okay? Should I wake Yosuke up?”

As soon as Teddie’s hands landed on Yuri’s shoulders, he shoved him away. The force sent Teddie backpedaling toward the wall, causing him to knock his head loudly. The resounding thump was enough that someone in an adjacent bedroom pounded on the wall and angrily shouted in a language Teddie didn’t understand. The sentiments didn’t sound pleasant.

By the time Teddie glimpsed up from his crumpled position, it was too late. Yuri had long since padded down the hall.

The hall leading to the bow of the boat.

* * *

“Yu, jump in with us!”

The voices beckoned Yuri closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. As he peered down from the top and watched the swimmers stare up at him with overly expectant eyes, he felt a flicker of hesitation.

He took half a step backward, just to steady his footing a bit on the precarious edge.

The small action sent them into a fit.

“What are you waiting for?” the man interrogated loudly. “Hurry and jump in!”

The man continued to rant loudly. All the while, the distance between the lake and the cliff’s edge seemed to steadily increase until it felt like Yuri was teetering multiple stories in the air. 

Yet, somehow, the man’s strident voice scraped the inside of his ears as if they were mere inches apart. 

_ “Jump!” _ he ordered. 

It was a command, not a question.

“Why are you being so stubborn?” the woman hollered up at him. Her lips were pinched into a tight frown. Her face was a few shades pinker than before. “That's just like you to be so ungrateful!"

Each word was like a needle in a vein, and each painful prod sent him reeling further from the ledge. Panic made his blood pound like a drum in his ears.  As if he was trapped in a state of sleep paralysis, Yuri found he was powerless to move. He could only watch as the lake below began to slowly swell into a shade of deep crimson.

“Stop being selfish!” the woman screeched, seemingly oblivious to his peril or just uncaring about it. Her eyes were rimmed the same shade of red as the water. “You always kept to yourself! That’s probably why you didn’t even try to save us!”

Her words seared him like licks from a flame.

“What—” Yuri huffed, struggling to speak, “—What are you talking about?”

He tried to step back, but his foot fell through the earth. All the was left beneath him was a light rope of railing suspending over a swirling vortex of blood red water. Escape was not an option, so he stared ahead in desperation.

“Who are you?” Yuri asked, voice vacillating. His expression was proud despite the terror that plagued his voice. “I am not Yu! You have the wrong person!”

They reared back their necks until the backs of their heads touched their spines and let out peals of laughter. Their eyes rolled back into their sockets, but not before their irises changed to a sickly, gangrene shade of yellow.

After their eyes changed color, their bodies also began to fuse into a horrific, demonic mass. The blood-red current caved in further to reveal slabs of smoldering brimstone leading down deep into the Earth. A scream caught in Yuri’s throat as a hoard of demons rushed out of the chasm. Their gnarled claws grabbed at his arms, trying to force him downward.

_ “Jump!” _ the misshapen demon ordered, eyes blazing like hellfire. Its long arms reached toward him with lightning-fast speed. “You cannot escape the Narukami Curse!”

It was true.

Finally, after holding out for as long as he could, the young man lost his balance.

* * *

“Where the hell did you see him go?” Yosuke barked as he hauled the bedroom door open and vaulted into the hall. The rocking motions of the ship sent him careening into a wall, with Teddie following shortly behind. The boy was almost as bruised up now as he’d been at the orphanage.

“Toward the bow,” Teddie screamed over the sound of howling wind. A flash of thunder lit the dark corridor just enough to illuminate a staircase before them.

“That way!” he pointed. “Hurry!”

Chie poked her head out from the door, having finally awoken from her deep slumber thanks to all the noise.

After sharing the news of Yuri’s escape, her crankiness at being so rudely awakened was immediately forgotten.

She joined the two in sprinting up the stairs to the upper levels of the ship. Upon reaching the deck, the three of them fanned out to search for their companion. While Chie flanked the right side of the ship, Teddie went veered left and Yosuke ventured down the center of the ship.

The deluge of rain pelting the deck was as dense as fog. The shroud made it hard to see where he was going and even harder to dodge the large waves that rose over the ship and crashed downward. One particularly strong crest came down on Yosuke like a lead curtain and sent him spiraling unto the wooden post of the ship’s overlook tower.

Using every ounce of strength in his lithe body, he hoisted his drenched form up from the ground and up onto the overlook. The perspective gave him a clearer, more sweeping look of the entire deck.

It took mere moments for him to spot Yuri’s form. The man was teetering precariously on the ship’s railing. He appeared to be sleepwalking, but his movements were erratic, as if he was battling the sheets of wind and rain that were pelting him. His silver hair was puffed around his head like dandelion fluff and his pajamas were rain-soaked and billowed around his wide-shouldered frame like a windswept tent on stilts.

Then, slowly, Yuri’s form rocked forward. One of his legs came up, as if he was getting ready to fall.

_ “Yuri!” _ Yosuke screamed, his voice slicing the sounds of the storm like a hatchet.

With strength and speed he didn’t know he possessed, Yosuke jumped down from the overlook and sprinted to the edge of the ship.

He skidded to a stop behind Yuri and threw his arms around his waist.

Yuri began to thrash madly against him the instant their bodies collided amidst the icy storm. It seemed that whatever nightmarish visions had caused him to rise from his bed were still plaguing him.

“Yuri, stop!” Yosuke yelled as he braved his punches and kicks “It’s me! It’s me, Yosuke!”

The man rocked back on his heels and forced himself to fall backward onto the safety of the wood flooring, taking Yuri with him in the process. The two spilled onto the ground in a tangled lump of limbs and wet clothes. Even after he’d yanked Yuri off the edge of the boat, he kept his arms wound tightly around the other man’s narrow waist, as if he was too afraid to let go.

The force of the impact was enough to snap Yuri out of his nightmare.

With a terrified gasp for air, his eyes shot open and he veered his head every which way, searching for the terrifying visions that had surrounded him moments before. It wasn’t until he locked eyes with Yosuke that his breathing started to calm and his body stilled.

Yuri sucked a sob back into his throat and bit his lip hard. “Yosuke?”

The other man nodded fervently. He moved his hands from Yuri’s waist so they could rest on his shoulders. When he found that the man’s limbs were shaking too much from fear too long onto, he let his palms rest against his face instead. The tips of his calloused thumbs gently swiped away the moisture that clung to the other man’s spiked lower lashes.

“Yes!” Yosuke said, flashing him a relieved smile. “It’s me. You’re okay, Yuri. You’re okay.”

Not Yu. Yuri.

Memories of his nightmare accosted him.

Yuri stared at Yosuke as his mouth tried in vain to form words. After trying to string together any coherent thought, he screwed his eyes shut and lunged forward. He embraced his partner tightly, burying his face into the warm expanse of Yosuke’s chest.

As Yuri heaved softly against Yosuke’s body, shedding terrified sounds that only the other could hear, the other man pressed his cheek to the top of Yuri’s head. He folded his arms across the trembling expanse of Yuri’s back and rubbed soothing circles into his skin.

“Yosuke … someone was telling me to jump,” Yuri confessed, teeth chattering. “The Narukami Family Curse, they wanted me … they wanted me to…”

“It’s okay,” Yosuke cooed again. He wanted to repeat the phrase as many times as possible until it had cemented itself into Yuri’s reality. “You’re safe.”

Yuri nodded, believing every word.

Chie and Teddie approached the couple from a few feet away. Almost instantly, the tension in the air seemed to evaporate. As did the weather.

No sooner had Yosuke pulled Yuri back from the edge of death had the seas decided to quell. The clouds overhead began to disperse and give way to the navy blanket of night.

Chie managed a weak laugh as she stared at the horizon where the orange tint of dawn was starting to manifest.

“Oh sure,” she sighed, “Now the rain stops.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewatched this scene from the movie before writing this chapter and, um, wow. They got away with some pretty intense imagery! It was fun to try my hand at interpreting that scenario in this universe. I hope you found t enjoyable as well.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. <3


	12. Paris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The companions finally arrive in Paris and now Yuri must pass the test posed by Yukiko in order to prove he's the tsarevich and earn the chance to meet Prince Dojima.

It was peacefully quiet in cabin after their ordeal. Since they were in an inner cabin, there was no porthole outside so it was hard to tell it was early morning now. The only sounds were the soft breaths from Teddie and Yuri and the light snores coming from where Chie had fallen back asleep. Yosuke, however, was wide awake. Everyone had dried off and changed into their clothes for the day, but since they still had several more hours to travel before arriving in Paris the others had soon fallen back asleep, exhausted from waking up too early and dashing about in the rain. Yosuke, while also tired, found himself unable to sleep after his adrenaline rush. He could still feel Yuri clutching him desperately, mumbling about the Narukami curse as he pressed against Yosuke for comfort. It had taken several minutes for him to finally feel comfortable enough to get up to return to the cabin, and the whole time he had quietly gripped the back of Yosuke’s sleeping shirt, as if scared to let go.

Yosuke buried his head against his knees, cursing internally from where he sat leaning against Yuri’s bed, almost as if he was standing watch and protecting it. He had been terrified when Teddie had woken him up, and even moreso when he thought Yuri was going to plunge into the angry seas as he was sleepwalking. He hadn’t felt that scared since the day the palace had been ransacked during the revolution when… Yosuke took a deep breath and released it before glancing at Yuri. He had been muttering about the Narukami curse which had surprised him. It was said that Adachi, the former adviser to the royal family, had cursed them when the king had relieved him of his services to the crown, but only people who had been in the palace had known about that. How had Yuri heard it? And why did it seem to scare him so much?

Not too long later, the ship sounded its horn to alert the passengers to the fact they were pulling into port. Everyone was awake in the cabin gathering their things and preparing to depart, while Teddie excitedly dashed out to the deck in order to take in the city of Paris. Chie also seemed more energetic than usual, and she kept soothing her hair and blushing while telling Yuri more about Yukiko who they would be going to see. No one saw Prince Dojima without first speaking to Yukiko. Meanwhile, Yosuke was feeling a headache coming on as he pulled his bag over his shoulder and let out a yawn.

“Couldn’t get back to sleep?” Yuri asked, eyeing him worriedly.

Yosuke shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time,” he fibbed. Chie opened her mouth to argue, since usually Yosuke had no trouble falling asleep due to them living in the deteriorating palace, but he shot her a look and she shut it, suddenly understanding. She gave him a knowing look and Yosuke blushed before looking away. “I’ll be fine though. Time to see if Paris is worth all the fuss,” he said cheekily before heading up to the deck. Their ship had passed from hugging the coast along the North Sea and up the river Seine to the city; thus, when they stepped up to the deck they realized they were in the heart of the city and gazing out in awe at the lively, bustling streets. It was so different from the cold, dreariness they were used to in Russia; the city was bright and lively and had a life all of its own. “Wow,” Yosuke said in awe, while Yuri stood next to him while gripping his pocket watch. His silvery eyes stared out at their surroundings, alight with hope.

“Isn’t it romantic?” Teddie asked with a big sigh as he rushed over to join them from where he had been perched on the railing as he gazed out at the city. He and Yuri were both in the outfits Yosuke had bought for them while Chie had donned a green dress that looked stunning on her. Yosuke hadn’t really seen her wear clothing like that since she was a girl, and he was startled with the realization that Chie had grown up to be quite a pretty young woman. He, meanwhile, was dressed in his normal clothes. It wasn’t like he needed to impress anyone.

“Are you ready?” Yosuke asked, looking at Yuri.

Yuri turned to face him, and he looked troubled for a moment. He then looked down at his pocket watch again before placing it back in his breast pocket and gave Yosuke a resolute nod. “I am,” he said.

They disembarked from the ship and followed Chie who had handwritten directions from a letter Yukiko had sent her back when they were still in Russia that detailed how to get to her hôtel particulier from the port. The closer they got to their final destination, the more nervous both Chie and Yuri seemed to get. When they finally spotted it up ahead, Chie stopped and nervously smoothed her dress. “Hey, it’s going to be ok. You know Yukiko’s going to be ecstatic to finally get to see you again,” Yosuke encouraged, giving her a quick hug in order to give her courage. Chie took a deep breath before flashing him a smile and announcing to Teddie that she would race him to the residence. As they ran ahead, Yosuke turned his attention to Yuri. “You’re going to be fine,” he assured him.

“But what if I fail?” he asked, turning to look at Yosuke. “What if…this isn’t my family?”

“Then you’re in Paris now and you’ll be able to find them,” Yosuke replied confidently. “Just be yourself and give whatever answer comes naturally.” Yosuke threw his arm around Yu, and started walking him toward the residence as the door opened to reveal the Amagi’s butler who took Chie’s name before stepping back inside. Moments later a gorgeous young woman with long dark hair pinned up into a red cap and a trendy red dress rushed into the doorway, before gasping excitedly upon seeing Chie.

“Darling!” Yukiko called out, and Chie rushed forward to give her a hug, her previous nervousness completely evaporated.

“Cherie!” she replied, and they exchanged kisses while Teddie looked on in awe. 

“It has been so long since I last saw you. You look simply enchanting,” Yukiko said, her eyes twinkling. Chie picked her up and swung her around while Yukiko giggled at her.

“And you look gorgeous,” Chie replied. “Ah, but here are my friends. This is Teddie, you’ve met Yosuke, and finally…Yuri.”

Yukiko looked at Yuri with sharp eyes, finally pulling away from Chie so she could slowly walk around him. Yosuke noted that Yuri seemed startled upon seeing her close up, almost as if he recognized her. He shook his head and the moment seemed to pass, although the moment lingered with Yosuke. Yukiko had also visited the palace often as a child which is how she and Chie met; she also had met the tsarevich and was well familiar with what he looked like. “He certainly looks the part,” Yukiko said thoughtfully. “Unfortunately, for him to meet the prince he will have to pass my test. I have to remain fair and impartial – Prince Dojima has been through a lot these past years looking for his nephew and I do not wish to hurt him further.”

“Of course,” Chie said, placing her hand on Yukiko’s. “And we want to make sure Yuri is truly meeting his family.” Yosuke felt a twinge in his chest, knowing that only a week ago both he and Chie had felt differently. Feeling guilty, he followed the others into Yukiko’s beautiful estate, which was tastefully decorated and very cozy. Once they sat in the parlor, Yukiko’s maid fetched them some tea, and once they were settled she began her rounds of questions.

Most of them were things Chie and Yosuke had quizzed Yuri on during their journey, and he answered them all flawlessly. He seemed to relax as the questioning continued, while Teddie and Chie watched in fascination. Yosuke, meanwhile, began to feel nervous. He stood up and paced around, noting here and there that a few questions that had slipped in were ones he and Chie hadn’t anticipated, yet somehow Yuri still managed to answer them correctly. ‘Maybe it came up at some point during the trip and I just don’t remember,’ Yosuke thought, although a few of them he honestly didn’t know the answer to himself.

And then Yukiko got to the final question. “You’ve been doing wonderfully Yuri,” she said with an encouraging smile. “I just have one more question to ask. It may seem a little impolite, but please bear with me. I only ask for the sake of the prince.”

“No need to apologize,” Yu replied effortlessly with a small, reassuring smile. Yosuke was surprised by how confident he seemed, when only half an hour ago he had seemed so uncertain.

“How was it that you escaped the palace during the revolution?” Yukiko asked.

Yosuke’s blood froze and his hand slipped into his pocket in order to grip the frog toy Yu had given him as a child. While Yosuke knew the answer to this question, it wasn’t anything he had ever revealed to anyone before. The only people who would know was him, Yu, and his uncle. Yosuke looked down, shoulders slumped. Even if Yuri was the tsarevich, with his amnesia there was no way he would have remembered either way. Then, Yuri spoke.

“There was so much noise, fire, and smoke – I could barely breathe. I often have nightmares of the smoke and how the light from the flames cast everything in a red glow. My parents had been ushered away, but I broke away to return to my room.” He was staring off into space and speaking slowly, as if he was re-living the experience yet again. “My pocket watch was left in there and I couldn’t leave it behind. My uncle followed me. A piece of the roof fell from the fire, trapping us in the room. We couldn’t go through the window because of the mob…”

Yosuke’s chest felt tight as he stared at the mantlepiece of the fireplace, listening but unable to look at Yuri. “Then, suddenly, I heard my name being called.” Yosuke’s hand gripped the mantle while the other loosened on the frog. “It was a boy from the kitchens. He…felt safe.” Tears were forming in Yosuke’s eyes and he took a shaky breath. “He had opened a panel in the wall and was calling for us to follow. He led us through a passageway, and we were able to avoid getting caught by the mob. After that…it gets hazy.” Yuri blinked and shook his head. “I’m sorry, that sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Opening a wall…”

“Or true perhaps?” Yukiko asked.

“Wait, really?” Chie asked, and he heard Yukiko’s pleased hum of confirmation.

“It sounds like Yuri is really our lost tsarevich,” she said in excitement. While the others all celebrated, Yosuke left the room in a daze. He wandered outside into the garden, suddenly needing a fresh air. Yuri, without a doubt, was Yu. His childhood best friend. He had found his family. Yu…was alive. Yosuke took a deep breath and then released it, before raising his hand to wipe the tears from his eyes. He was elated, and yet…

“Yosuke, what are you doing out here?” Chie asked curiously behind him. Yosuke quickly turned, feeling relieved when he realized Teddie and Yuri were still inside with Yukiko. She was bringing them into the other room to serve them dinner as they celebrated. “I really can’t believe Yuri was able to answer that last question. It’s pretty incredible – I thought we were done for.”

“He answered it because he’s Yu,” Yosuke said quietly.

“I mean, yeah, that’s why we’re here,” she said, obviously not getting it.

“No, Chie. He’s Yu. He’s your cousin. I was the boy who saved Yu and his uncle from the fire. There’s absolutely no way he would have known that unless he was there,” Yosuke replied.

Chie’s eyes widened. “You…he…” She trailed off. “What’s wrong? Why do you look so sad?” she asked. “We actually found his family – Yu is alive! You should be happy.”

Yosuke let out a deep sigh. “I am happy. I’m glad he can finally know who he is again and be with someone who loves him,” he said slowly.

“But?” Chie pressed.

“Tsareviches…they don’t stay friends with kitchen boys,” Yosuke said bitterly. “Once this is all said and done…I’ll be returning to Russia.”

“Yosuke, don’t be silly,” Chie said, and Yosuke looked up at her with a bitter smile on his face.

“You know I’m right,” he replied. “There wouldn’t be a place for me here. Just knowing he’s alive and well…that’s enough for me.”

Chie bit her lip as Yosuke slapped a smile on his face, wondering what Yukiko had in store for dinner before clapping her on the shoulder and whistling as he walked inside. She stood staring at the garden for several long moments, remembering the feeling she got early on that her companion would get his heart broken. She let out a sigh before following him inside, hoping that somehow, things would work out. They still needed to actually have the meeting with the prince after all. 


	13. Cinderella

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group spends an unforgettable evening touring Paris, with Yu and Yosuke bonding more than ever before. The night is filled with enchantment and fleeting moments of romance that have both parties wishing the rendezvous would never end. Alas, their fanciful evening must come to an end as they make arrangements to attend a performance at the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris. The ballet is none other than "Cinderella" by the infamous Ballets Russes, which means the Duke will be in attendance.

_“How are we going to do this?” Chie asked Yukiko worriedly._

_The two had stolen a moment alone while Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie were otherwise distracted. They were seated side-by-side on a berry and gold loveseat in the parlor of Yukiko’s mansion, located just a stone’s throw away from the Eiffel Tower and its gardens._

_“I’m afraid the Duke is quite tired of seeing imposter after imposter,” Yukiko said as she ran her thumb over her love’s knuckles._

_“Are you saying there’s no way he’ll receive us?” she repeated._

_“Not like he used to, anyway,” Yukiko admitted. “But ... I may have an idea.”_

_Chie’s curiosity was piqued. “What are you thinking?"_

_“The Ballets Russes has a performance at the Palais Garnier opera house tonight,” Yukiko offered. “His Highness is quite a fan of ballet, especially of troupes from his homeland. We never miss a performance. So…”_

_Chie picked up the thread her lover had dropped and carried it right along._

_“If we can attend the performance, we can stage a meeting with him right after the show,” she said. “We can meet him at his box. Then he’ll have no choice but to at least hear us out!”_

_The raven-haired woman pressed a kiss between Chie’s brows. “Astute as always.”_

_“By the way…what is the ballet they’ll be performing tonight anyway?” Chie inquired._

_Yukiko jerked her chin in the direction of the discarded_ quotidien _on the counter. “Let’s see. It appears to be Cinderella.”_

_The young woman snorted in laughter. “Of course. Of all shows.”_

The sky was clear even as the cityscape became dressed in its nighttime shawl. The twilight hours turned the sidewalks lavender and the pale buildings shades of dark blue and pale orange.

As Yu was pulled through the streets of Paris by an over-eager Yukiko, he found himself unable to take his eyes away from the city’s twinkling corridors. Gas lamps lit up every nook and cranny of the city.

When the sea of lights bounced playfully off the inky waters of the Seine, the whole city appeared as if it was suspended in space.

It felt dreamy and surreal, and the feeling was only heightened by the sudden whirlwind the young man had been caught up in mere hours before.

Yukiko, in her overflowing generosity and adoration of shopping, had invited the entire party along for a celebratory trip to purchase new clothes and soak up the fine culture of Paris before arranging a run-in with His Highness at the evening's ballet performance. Their end destination for the night was Palais Garnier Opera House, a space known for its prestige in the city's vast and devoted opera community. It was attended by high-class thespians and royal families dressed in their best silks and brightest clothes for the occasion.

That was why the mere prospect of Yu reuniting with his uncle for the first time at the opera in a canvas coat and woolen rags was not something Yukiko could abide. In fact, when he tried to object and said he didn’t have the means for such luxury, Chie immediately jumped in and agreed that an evening out on the town was just the thing the group needed to relax and unwind after their perilous journey. It would serve as an additional fortification to prepare the young orphan for the opulence he would experience at the ballet. Though, Yu was already such a fine young man that he was the one Yukiko was the least concerned about.

Of course, Yosuke had to join as well and Teddie was highly encouraged to tag along. They were all to stay together. No exceptions.

Teddie had no problems with that.

But Yu noticed that Chie seemed…oddly insistent about Yosuke coming along on the trip as well. Not that Yu minded. In fact, Yosuke had been so uncharacteristically quiet since they’d arrived at Yukiko's mansion that Yu was willing to jump into any activity or interaction that might brighten his friend’s spirits.

While the ceremonial shopping trip and announcement that they’d be attending a prestigious ballet performance was all well and good (no, really, he was so thankful that he didn’t even have words to express it) he still felt like he was walking on air. After all, he was nearing his goal.

The meeting with his family was just on the horizon.

His memories were still somewhat fuzzy, but he’d passed enough tests for Yukiko and Chie to shower him in hugs and words of praise. Even Teddie had joined in on the party and wrapped him in a tight, fuzzy embrace thanks to his bear-fur coat. However, Yosuke has been strangely absent from that occasion as well.

…Yosuke.

Yu risked a glance back at his fawn-haired companion. Currently, he was lingering back a bit from the rest of the group.

At first, he thought it was because he was exhausted from their trip or maybe wanted to enjoy some alone time after traveling with a group for so long. That would have made sense, since Chie had also redirected her attention solely onto Yukiko since their arrival and Teddie was busying himself with testing his poorly translated puck-up lines onto any passerby that had enough mercy to listen.

Yu wouldn’t have blamed Yosuke – who was seemingly a perfect example of a lone wolf – for craving some well-deserved alone time.

But when Yu looked back at Yosuke to check on him, he found that Yosuke was staring right back at him.

The two locked eyes for a moment.

Their wide-eyed stares lasted only a millisecond. It was a blip in time, brighter and quicker than a lightning strike. It wasn’t long before Yosuke broke the spell by flashing him his signature, lopsided grin.

He lifted his head and mouthed out the words, “Having fun?”

Yu, who was lodged between Yukiko and Chie with his arms linked around their elbows while they chatted at his shoulders, replied with a laugh.

“I’ve never been better,” he mouthed back. And it was the truth.

He expected Yosuke to return his playful comment with a similar amount of gusto. After all, it was his insurmountable optimism and emotional resilience that had gotten him this far.

Such was not the case.

While Yosuke did beam back at him, teeth and all, it wasn’t the same as his usual smile. In fact, his whole demeanor was burdened with a tautness that was uncharacteristic for the scrappy young man. His amber eyes didn’t crinkle in the corners and his chin was snug with his chest instead of lifted skyward like it usually was when he was encouraging his friends or staring down an obstacle. The bright-eyed determination that had bolstered Yu’s confidence more than anything else on their journey was suddenly gone and in its place was a soft, pliable mask of resignation. The man appeared to be mere shadow of his former self.

If the Yosuke’s he’d known and loved was a vibrant firecracker, the form before him was the ghost of the smoke left behind.

His heart thrummed in his chest.

Wait, love? No, that wasn’t possible. Or, was it? Maybe?

Would Yosuke feel the same way?

Why was he thinking about these things?

Yu refocused his gaze on the pastel-paved path before him. As he stared at the vibrantly dressed crowds and the uniform rows of Haussmann-style buildings, he knew he should be happy. He and Teddie had escaped the orphanage together. Yosuke and Chie had generously welcomed them into their group for reasons Yu still didn't completely understand, but he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Their ragtag team had survived a myriad of challenges together with a decent amount of poise and grace. They’d pulled through train crashes, snowstorms, choppy seas, and deadly nightmares that had almost lured him to his death.

Now, the end of the journey was finally near. Things were nearing a crescendo.

The weight of the watch in his pocket thumped rhythmically against his leg, in sync with his footsteps. It was a steady reminder, as sure and reliable as the blood that roared in his veins or the pulse that echoed in his ears, that he was within reach of his goal.

They were here, together, in Paris.

So, why did a very small part of him feel so sad?

* * *

Yu knew absolutely nothing of fashion.

Even after he considered this fact in Yukiko, it did nothing to quell her enthusiasm for helping him find a suitable outfit for their upcoming rendezvous later that evening. After all, the most esteemed royalty would be present at the event, including the Duke himself. Such an occasion called for truly princely attire. It was to be his grand entrance, after all.

“With me as your guide, you’ll be turning heads in no time!” Yukiko reassured him. Then, with a mischievous glint in her eye, she leaned in close and whispered in Yu’s ear, “Perhaps the head of one companion in particular?”

Yu blushed hotly but remained silent. Yukiko astutely observed that he didn’t make an effort to refute her statement.

“Chie, why don’t you help Teddie look presentable?” she asked while giving her love an encouraging peck on the cheek. “I know it will be a trying task, but I have full confidence that you’ll be able to pull through.”

Teddie had busied himself with devouring a rather large popcorn ball that he’d coerced from paying a few well-aimed compliments to a nearby vendor. The treat’s crunchy texture left a waterfall of crumbs down the front of his coat, which was already weathered and dirty from their travels.

Yosuke chuckled at the endearing sight. 

Meanwhile, Chie scrunched up her nose and sighed. “I’ll … give it my all.”

As Chie wrangled Teddie and shoved them to another store down the street, Yukiko grabbed Yu and Yosuke by their hands and guided them into a nearby outlet.

The marquee at the top of the store read _Croco Fur_ in ornate, black script. The store’s façade was stark white but decorated with a trellis that dripped in lavender. Real lavender.

Upon stepping inside, both men noticed that many pieces of the inventory were the same shade of dreamy purple as the flowers out front. Other costumes that lined the walls were just as brightly colored, showing off unconventional shades of mint and retina-scorching magenta. There were some more sophisticated, embroidered pieces mixed in with statement coats and wide-brimmed hats of starched straw. Every piece of clothing that hung neatly on the racks, from tulle to China silk, was as pigmented as the feathers of a tropical bird.

It was a stark contrast to Yu’s small suitcase of baggy neutrals.

Once they were a few steps inside, Yukiko spun around and clasped her hands beneath her chin in delight.

“Well, this is our first stop,” Yukiko beamed. “Tell me, what do you think?”

Yu swiveled his head around again, still at a loss for words.

“It’s very bright,” he offered honestly. 

Yosuke nodded in agreement. “I’m a little surprised, Yukiko. I mainly see you wear red, and this place is anything but monochromatic. It looks like they squeezed an entire rainbow in here.”

The comment pleased Yukiko greatly.

“Um, out of curiosity, why did you choose this place first?” Yu inquired.

The woman’s hands snaked down and behind her back as her smile grew into a mischievous smirk. The sudden change in her demeanor struck him as incredibly odd and, in all honesty, a little intriguing.

One of his moonlight-colored brows lofted as he watched her scurry over to a dressing room and pull a velvet curtain open. She stepped inside and returned with an armful of outfits. An armful of pre-coordinated outfits.

“If I see your handsome face in one more shade of beige or gray, I’m going to scream,” she said. “So, I made arrangements with all my… _personal_ favorite designers for them to pick out a few ensembles for you to try on. We want you to look your best tonight, after all! Anything drab will not do.”

He bobbed his head automatically, a little numb at the prospect of being a dress-up doll for outfits that probably cost more than the orphanage’s annual budget.

Yosuke whistled lowly and patted Yu’s shoulder. “Oh boy.”

The woman pointed a finger at Yosuke. “Don’t get smart with me. You’re going to be trying on just as many outfits for tonight. I happen to know for a fact that the Duke will not entertain you looking like that.”

“Hey,” Yosuke said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his sack coat. “That’s rude.”

Yu chuckled deeply and laid a hand on Yosuke’s elbow. “I’m looking forward to seeing you dressed up.”

This caused Yosuke’s head to jerk up. “Really?”

Yu nodded sincerely.

Yosuke blinked back at him, slow and reptilian. “Well, if that’s the case, then I guess it could be fun.”

No sooner had he begrudgingly acquiesced did Yukiko load another armful of outfits into the fawn-haired man’s arms and push him into a nearby dressing room by the small of his back.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Yosuke griped as she pulled the curtain shut. “Easy. I’m not as durable as Chie is.”

Yosuke’s complaints fell on deaf ears as she gave him one last shove. A resounding thump and rustle of clothes let everyone know that Yosuke had collided with the wall.

Yu’s smile from before only broadened as he observed their banter. It was like watching a scene from a storybook come to life where the cast of colorful characters bantered and engaged in playful shenanigans. As an orphan, such a carefree and merry life seemed so far out of grasp.

It was only when she grabbed his shoulder to urge him into the nearest changing room that reality crashed back into him.

“Wait, Yukiko,” he said, pausing in the doorway as she loaded the outfits in his arms. His knees buckled under the weight of everything.

“I just—” he readjusted, shifting the weight off his chest, “—wanted to say thank you. You are truly kind for taking the time to help us. You really have made me feel welcome, even in a city full of strangers. You have gone above and beyond and…I want you to know that, no matter what happens, I really appreciate it.”

Yukiko’s dark eyes struggled to blink back tears at the sweet confession. Unfortunately, the result made the mascara on her lashes start to bead.

“Oh, Yu, please,” she sighed while retrieving a handkerchief from her plum-colored clutch. “I’m unprepared for such a statement.”

He chuckled bashfully. “Sorry.”

She waved away his modesty with a flap of her gloved hand. “Go change. By the time you step out in your first outfit, I’ll have collected myself.”

Yu bowed his head and obeyed his chaperone’s orders.

He ducked behind the velvet curtain and began the arduous task of making heads or tails of the expensive garments.

Yukiko reclined on a chaise lounge nearby as her companions changed in and out of various outfits.

After a few ‘yays’ and multiple nays, Yosuke was the first to emerge from his dressing room. The man was dressed in an overly large cream chemise with the sleeves buttoned just above his shapely forearms. His waistcoat was a shade of deep marigold that was cut taut to his narrow waist and, unlike all his other jackets, this one flattered his svelte shape nicely. Chocolate brown slacks and a tapered day-jacket grounded his sun-colored torso. Around his neck was a sky blue cravat, the same color as a clear day. The only unkempt part of him now was his hair, which wasn’t a bad look on him. In fact, his polished clothes and rugged face and hair made him look even more fashionable than men who wore their hair slicked back with too much pomade.

When he emerged, Yukiko applauded in affirmation. “Goodness, Yosuke! You look like Helios-incarnate.”

The young man adjusted the cuffs of his shirt uneasily. The buttons were brass, but cool in their undertones. Like tiny dewdrops dotted across his form. “You think?”

“I do,” she said. “All you need is a radiant crown and a horse-drawn carriage to pull you across the sky!”

He laughed at the mental image that conjured. “If I had that, it would have been a lot easier to get here from Saint Petersburg.”

In the adjacent changing room, the curtain began to jostle to-and-fro. It seemed that Yu had also found a satisfactory outfit.

When he stepped out, Yukiko actually gasped and Yosuke fell completely speechless.

Yu was dressed in layers of violet and sapphire. His shirt was a shade of deep amethyst that came up high on his neck but laid flat, highlighting the broad expanse of his chest and fine bone structure. The waistcoat was made of navy silk down the back and crushed velvet up the front. Pearl buttons trailed down his abdomen to the dark navy trousers.

A jacket of fairy-spin silver, lined inside with blush-colored satin, rested casually about his shoulders. It was secured about his collar with a pearl chain.

If Yosuke was Helios, Yu was Tsukuyomi.

Gods of the sun and moon.

“Woah…” Yosuke floundered, struggling for words. "

“What did I tell you?” Yu said, breaking the silence. “I knew you’d clean up well, Yosuke.”

His gaze skimmed Yosuke’s form slowly. The way his gaze ambled should have felt sleazy, but the sincere glee in Yu’s eyes at seeing his friend look so dazzling was disarmingly genuine.

“You’ll be dodging romantic suitors left and right,” Yu told him brightly.

“Speak for yourself,” Yosuke said. “Man, you look...”

“Passable for royalty?” Yu pried, only half-kidding.

“Incredible,” Yosuke replied, one-hundred percent serious. “You look incredible.”

The comment caused Yu to square his shoulders and tilt his head down. “Oh. Well, thank you.”

It took Yosuke half a second longer than it should have to respond. “Uh, no problem. Really. No problem at all.”

Yukiko smiled to herself. Heads were officially turned.

“We still have to choose suits for tonight as well,” Yukiko reminded them with another loud clap of her hands. “Come now. Chie is currently trying to tame a bear into a day suit. We don’t have a moment to waste!”

* * *

Chie fully anticipated the task of negotiating Teddie into an appealing set of clothes to take all the way until the evening. However, thanks to her to preemptive knowledge of comfortable menswear and Teddie’s openness to literally try anything that appeared before him, the task was swiftly completed.

She soon found herself waltzing through the avenues of Paris killing time with her latest fashion experiment in tow. Currently, her experiment was munching away on a candy apple and waving at any person who turned their head in his direction. 

At first, she doubted her ability to take the rambunctious orphan and turn him into a fashionable specimen. After all, Yukiko was the expert on high-society trends, not her.

However, if the lingering stares from ladies and gentlemen on the street were any indication, her endeavor had been a rousing success. Even one of the officers patrolling the streets blushed and tipped their hat in return.

Teddie was dressed in a fluorescent red coat that sinuously curved around his small waist and tapered into narrow-fitting trousers that skimmed his legs all the way to his ankles. The color of his red jacket meant that it was inconsequential how many candy-coating crumbs became scattered down his torso. The woman had taken care to ask him what snack he was in the mood for before picking out his ensemble. She’d learned that lesson from the popcorn ball earlier.

His look was contrasting yet complementary to her own.

Chie’s day dress featured layers of diaphanous green fabric and hand-painted peacocks on the skirts, which swished about her legs freely. She’d always favored more sporty and lightweight attire, and apparently, a plot to infiltrate the Duke’s theatrical booth was no exception.

All of a sudden, her soaring mood felt drastically dampened.

Their upcoming plan to try and convince the Duke that Yu was his long lost nephew would be a hard one. Hell, Yukiko had told her that fact outright.

But the stakes were higher than before.

At first, the reward was the main goal. Restoring a long-lost prince to his family was a nice shmaltzy ending to their quest. Like an extra dollop of cream on their metaphorical sundae of success.

Now, the idea of Yu being rejected gave her anxiety. Not to mention that Yosuke’s emotions were also at play.

She gripped her emerald-colored clutch tightly.

Failure wasn't an option. This had to work.

Teddie noticed her sudden bout of tension even from afar. He tossed the skewer from his candy apple, thoroughly cleaned by his ravenous appetite, and gently took her arm. “Chie, are you okay?”

Not knowing what else to say, she nodded and pretended to be surprised.

“Oh no, I’m fine!” she stated. Knowing he’d be unconvinced, she continued, “I guess I’m feeling a little tired. Maybe I’m just worn out from trying on so many pairs of clothes. You know how it is when you have to take outfits on and off over and over again?”

The former orphan literally didn’t know what she met. Nonetheless, he laid his lead of dandelion-colored hair against her shoulder and tried to not worry. “Okay.”

The duo eventually arrived back at the same line of shops that they’d previously parted from Yukiko, Yu, and Yosuke. The three were seated at a small but sightly restaurant on the corner of a busy intersection filled with street performers and artists painting portraits.

The lower the sun set, the more the city roared to life.

Upon seeing Chie and Teddie in the distance, Yukiko stood and waved them over.

Her dress was a single sheath of dark blue fabric draped naturally over her lithe form. The imperial cut of the gown’s waistband showed off a ruby-colored band made of expertly wrapped satin. The accessory was reminiscent of a Japanese _obi_. A shawl of silk, interwoven with sparks of red glitter, danced about her shoulders.

Chie and Teddie both stood astonished at the woman’s beauty.

The trance was only broken when Yosuke got up from his seat and waved a hand in front of their faces. “Hello? Earth to Chie? Ted?”

“They appear to be stunned,” Yu observed.

The display made Yukiko blush and reach immediately for Chie’s arm. “Hey! Are we going to spend the night standing around or are we going to enjoy ourselves?”

Of course, the answer was obvious.

After paying for their order and leaving quite a generous tip, the group officially set out to spend the next few hours gallivanting around Paris and enjoying the nightlife. With Yukiko as their guide, the three popped in and out of cabarets and bars.

While Teddie busied himself with flirting, the two couples enjoyed many sessions of dancing and recreational imbibing.

At one particularly smoky nightclub, heavy with the smell of tobacco and vetiver, Yu and Yosuke shared a glass of champagne.

Their faces, inches apart, hovered over the opposite ends of the glass. Both smiled at each other, so swept up in the intimacy of their actions and each other’s gazes that the roar of the nightclub faded into a deadened hum by comparison.

When Yu took another sip, Yosuke was the one to gently tilt the glass against his lips. When a little pearl of champagne rolled down his chin, Yosuke resisted the urge to lean in and kiss it away.

“Easy there,” Yosuke teased with a peal of laughter. “We want you to be able to stand on your own two feet when you meet your family for the first time, right?”

Yu wrinkled his nose at the acidity of the drink and Yosuke’s remark. “It’s hardly my fault you’re a bad influence.”

“And it’s hardly my fault that you’re so cute,” Yosuke replied.

One of Yu’s hands rushed to his face as he hurriedly shook his head in disagreement at the statement. The attempt failed to hide the very real smile Yosuke had seen on his face.

In addition to making Yu far more giggly, the beverage was also helping him to loosen up.

When Teddie broke away from his latest fling to pull Yu onto the dance floor, the young man allowed himself to be swept up in the gesture. Yosuke watched the duo take center-stage and spin in a pattern of lopsided circles that would have made even experienced sailors seasick to behold.

Yosuke watched their dance partially through the rose-tinted glass of bubbly champagne. As the drink popped and fizzed, he watched Yu swing to-and-fro with such abundant enthusiasm that his heart became tender at the sight.

Because soon he’d never see that smile again.

Yosuke tilted his head back and polished off the drink with one last swig.

Hours later, after they wined and dined abundantly, the time for the ballet approached.

While Yukiko escorted Yu and Teddie back to her mansion to help make sure they could be professionally fitted into their nighttime couture, Yosuke and Chie were left to their own devices outside of the opera house’s entrance.

As other members of high society continued to file through the house’s intricately painted doors, Yosuke was starting to feel a little nervous.

“I don’t think your shoulders are supposed to touch your ears, Yosuke,” Chie muttered from a few paces away.

Okay, a lot nervous.

For the occasion, Yosuke had donned a traditional white and black tuxedo to match the level of wealth and polish expected by all the other male attendees. It would also lend him more credence when meeting the Duke if he blended in with as much of the other aristocratic members of the audience as possible.

Chie shifted her weight from foot to foot. To fend off the slight chill that permeated the night air, she’d wrapped a clover-colored silk jacket and matching sash around the upper half of her body. However, the added layer of clothing didn’t seem to stop her shivering.

It seemed that she was also nervous.

“What if something goes wrong?” she wondered aloud. She kicked a pebble on the ground. “What if the Duke doesn’t believe he’s the real prince?”

“He has to,” Yosuke said as he leaned against the closest wall and pressed his head against his forearm. All the while, his eyes remained transfixed on the crowd. “I told you already. Yu is the real prince. He remembered me pulling him to safety. We can’t fake that…and the Duke knows that too.”

It was a memory only the three of them shared. One blip in time that was literally priceless in its worth. It was the key to swaying the Duke’s opinion…they just had to get that far.

“Then what?”

“Then…our job will be done,” he said. “Our tsarevich will stay here with his family. I’m sure you’ll want to stay here as well and be with Yukiko. Ted…who knows what he’ll do, but he’ll most likely stay in Paris as well. He absolutely loves it here.”

“And you?”

“I’ll return to Russia,” he said.

“Yosuke…” she sighed sadly. The young woman knew her friend well enough that he honestly believed what he was saying, even if she did not. “We’re not in medieval times! You do know that the ballet we are seeing tonight is _Cinderella_ , don’t you? The prince in that story fell in love with a kitchen girl too!”

“That’s a fairy tale,” Yosuke snapped, his tone harder than before.

The silence stretched between them. Off in the distance, the sound of applause roared over the streets. The show was nearing its start.

Finally, Yosuke turned to face his friend head-on.

“Listen to me. We’re going to go through with this as if nothing has changed,” he said in a hushed tone.

Chie swished her head back and force, her dripping crystal earrings jingling as she did so. “No, Yosuke. You have to tell him!”

“Tell me what?”

Both turned around and were greeted with Yu’s curious expression.

He was joined by Yukiko and Teddie, who was donned in a tuxedo similar to Yosuke's but with a more intensely frilled shirt and a rose corsage pinned to his breast pocket.

Yu, on the other hand, was adorned in a suit the color of the night sky. The navy jacket was also decorated with cascades of small crystals that made it appear as if he really was a reincarnated deity wearing the night sky as his celestial garb.

Someone had also slicked his hair back with pomade so that his bangs swept artfully just above his brow line.

“How…handsome you look,” Yosuke quickly offered. He even reached out to take his friend's hand, his thumb ghosting over the satiny material of his ivory gloves. “You look great.”

Yu tilted his head but did not move to challenge his companion’s oddly timed statement. “Really? Well, thank you.”

The note of hesitation did not evade Yosuke’s attention.

When Yosuke offered the taller man his arm and Yu accepted gratefully, the other man then leaned in provocatively close and whispered, “How are you doing? Walking okay after all that drinking?”

Yu took his index and pointer finger and shoved them playfully against Yosuke’s chest. They both tried to ignore how the single touch made a heat leap between them. The touch sent Yosuke back a few inches, but not far enough that they stopped touching. In fact, they remained hip-to-hip as they strolled in the theater together. Chie and Yukiko linked arms and followed closely behind. All the while, Teddie followed behind them from a few feet back.

The normally excitable man was suddenly quieter than before.

It seemed that his worry from before was still gnawing like a pest at his conscience.

Ultimately, every member of their group entered the theater and took their assigned seat. This meant that Yukiko had to separate from the group and join the Duke in their signature box high above the rest of the ground-floor seats. Before leaving, she made sure to identify the box for Yu and Yosuke so they would know where to go after the show. She lipped Yu a pair of opera glasses that would allow him to better view the show, and his uncle, from a distance.

Chie, Yosuke, Yu, and Teddie all filed into their seats right as the lights dimmed.

Before the room went completely dark, Yu veered his head in the direction of the box Yukiko had pointed out before. Sure enough, there she was taking a seat beside another man. His profile was rugged in appearance and bore a serious expression as he stared down at the stage. The level of joy and enthusiasm he saw in the faces of the other attendees was utterly absent from his.

Yu’s heart sank a little bit at the fact that the visage also was completely unfamiliar to him.

His fingers contracted sharply, causing the theatrical pamphlet he had been given before the show to crinkle loudly from the strain.

_“Please remember me.”_

Then, the show began.

The story of _Cinderella_ was one Yu had heard before. In fact, it had been one of the favorites of his peers back at the orphanage. Many nights he’d read the fable for storytime for some of the younger residents, even taking care to act out each moment with different performances and voices to the joy of his audience.

Despite the fact that he was so familiar with the story that he could recite it word for word, there was something magical about seeing the story come to life in a visual way. He became absolutely lost in the act of being a spectator. So lost, in fact, that his fingers siphoned his excess anxiety by tearing and twirling the pieces of the pamphlet into literal ribbons as the show went on.

When Yosuke glanced over and saw a pile of curled paper in Yu’s lap, he reached over and stole one of his jittering hands in his own.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Yosuke said as he gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Promise.”

Unbeknownst to either of them, Teddie stole multiple glances at them during the show, his cornflower eyes shining with concern.

When the show finally ended, Chie and Teddie decided to wait for the couple out front to avoid drawing suspicion from having a large group ambush the royal’s box.

As a result, Yu and Yosuke were completely alone as they navigated the grand building's staircases and hallways by themselves. While it didn’t take long for the couple to put their heads together and find the right way, it was a walk both of them would have liked to last much longer.

When they finally arrived at the correct door, Yosuke spun out of Yu’s arms. He knew he had to make his move fast before the Duke had the chance to exit. Every second that passed consisted of Yukiko distracting the notoriously impatient man.

“Okay,” Yosuke said. “Wait here. I’ll go in and introduce you first.”

Before he could dart for the door, Yu reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Wait.”

Yosuke swerved his head back to meet his gaze. His eyes were wide-eyed and semi-frantic given the situation, but he still stopped to listen. “Yes?”

The two locked eyes again. Yu kept his hand firmly on Yosuke’s shoulder, his fingers pressing firmly into the fabric to mold to the swell of muscle underneath.

There was so much he wanted to say.

He wanted to tell Yosuke that, no matter what happened, that he wanted them to stay together. He wanted the two of them to explore more of the city together. He wanted to share more than just drinks with him. He wanted the floaty happiness he’d felt with him to last forever.

He wanted to tell Yosuke how much he meant to him.

Yet, he also knew he didn’t have the time to do so.

“Thank you…for everything,” Yu whispered. “Um, no matter what happens, I want you to know that being on this journey with you has been one of…no, it has been the best experience of my life. I’m forever grateful to you. And I…I would be happy if our time together didn’t end tonight.”

Yosuke’s eyes softened at the confession. By the time Yu was finished speaking, Yosuke felt so overjoyed at his words that he wanted to yell from the rooftops. Never before had an awkwardly muttered phrase made him want to scream, dance, and flip over tables in delight.

“I feel the same,” Yosuke confessed. “I…really do.”

With tenderness that conveyed an emotion greater than kinship, he reached out and stole Yu’s slender hand into his own. Then, instead of lifting his hands to his lips, he dropped his head in reverence and brushed his lips over the inside of Yu’s palm instead. Then, he folded Yu’s fingers over the imaginary kiss, trapping it inside his hand like a bird or butterfly.

Russia be damned. Wherever Yu wanted him to be, he’d go without question.

He quickly turned and knocked rhythmically on the door. He tapped out, _shave-and-a-haircut_. It was the secret code that announced their arrival.

“I’ll be right back, okay?”

With matching tenderness, Yu raised his hand and opened his fingers against the chest, placing the kiss right over his heart. “Okay.”

Right on cue, Yukiko burst out of the room. She flashed them a knowing smile before launching into a theatrical display of mock-exasperation.

“Oh dear, please tell me you aren’t here to present _another_ young man as the missing Prince Yu?” she asked in a loud, overly dramatic voice. While her acting needed polish, she wanted to make sure Dojima could hear her clearly.

A tired grunt from inside the room signified that he had in fact picked up on her banter.

“Tell them to leave,” Dojima drawled from the other side of his tall, theatrical seat. When he rose and stood upright, his broad and well-decorated stature was as imposing as his voice was. “Let me guess? Another young orphan from Russia? Or perhaps an amnesiac from the wrong side of the tracks? Save it. I’ve heard it all before.”

The Duke did not speak with the eloquence that Yukiko that other members of high-society did. Instead, Dojima’s tone was curt, bordering on outright rude. However, it made sense that suffering a long line of con artists attempting to reunite him with fake versions of his beloved missing nephew had somewhat dulled his enthusiasm for human contact.

“Please!” Yosuke pleaded. “We’ve come all the way from Russia!”

Yukiko moved aside so Yosuke could duck inside the room. To continue the façade on Yukiko’s end, she pretended to grab him and push him away, obviously failing each time.

Both of them forgot to latch the door.

“Your majesty,” Yosuke said as he entered the room. He saw the muscles on Dojima’s jaw tighten at Yosuke’s sudden appearance, but the young man was determined to not be intimidated. “I know countless others have come to you before me, but I’m here to announce that I have found the real Prince Yu.”

The man rolled his eyes while reaching for his can and gloves. “Yukiko, see this man out immediately.”

It was clear he wasn’t in the mood to talk.

Regardless, Yosuke persisted.

“Once you see him, you’ll know—”

“What’s your name, young man?” Dojima asked suddenly. The edge to his voice rivaled a dagger’s. “Out with it.”

For obvious reasons, he hesitated at first. Yosuke became rigid as he murmured, “It’s…Yosuke. Yosuke Hanamura.”

“Yosuke, huh?” Dojima parroted. Just then, his smoky eyes darkened substantially. “Ah, yes. I know you. You’re rather famous for your ‘auditions’ in Saint Petersburg to find the missing prince.”

The sentence hit Yosuke like a brick across the cheek. Even Yukiko shuddered in surprise from her position near the door.

Their reactions only cemented Dojima's feeling of contempt even more. 

"You must be pretty desperate for the reward money to come all the way here and think you can corner me," Dojima told him. "Tell me, have you told the poor sap you've fooled into coming here about your intentions? Or are they in on the plan too?" 

"You don't understand! All the rumors you've heard about me, they're true, but that doesn't mean anything now," Yosuke argued. "You don't understand! The man I have with me is the real prince! We can prove it."

All the while, Yuri stood in horror just outside. The doors ajar position had allowed him to hear every word.

“Believe me, kid, I understand perfectly,” Dojima growled. The timbre of his voice was so deep that Yosuke swore the room shook. “This conversation is over. If you know what’s good for you, get out of my sight.”

The man stepped out from behind his chair and planted two fingers squarely against Yosuke’s sternum, just like Yu had done before, and pushed him out of the room. The force of the shove sent the scrawny man tumbling back against the door until he gracelessly spilled out into the hallway.

When Yosuke scrambled back onto his feet, he found that someone was waiting for him. Someone with eyes like steel.

“It was all a lie, wasn’t it?” Yu whispered while backstepping away. “You used me? I was just part of your con to get his money?”

By the time Yosuke had his footing, Yuri was already halfway down the hall and heading toward the stairs. His stride was as brisk as a soldier's, with his head pointed straight-ahead. He was making a beeline for the exit with the precision of a bullet.

“No, Yu!” Yosuke yelled, adrenaline and panic carrying his every step. “It may have started that way, but I swear, things are different now! I don’t care about the money. I only care about—”

“You lied to me from the very beginning,” Yu responded, his voice fading in and out like a worn-out record. “And now…”

Yosuke leaned into his next attempt to reach for him. “Yu, please you have to—”

A cold hand slapped him across the face. The sound was like a gunshot as it reverberated in the grandiose space. Heads turned from every which way to stare at the squabble.

“Don’t call me that,” he said. “My name is Yuri. We _both_ know that, don’t we?”

By the time Yosuke had recovered from the shock of the blow, a small crowd had formed around them. Through the pain that blurred his vision, he saw Yuri’s outline shoulder his way through the crowd and dash away. Still partially blinded by the density of the crowd, Yosuke jumped up and tried to chase him through the throngs of onlookers and regular individuals looking to exit the theater after the performance.

“Yu, please wait!” Yosuke called from atop the stairs. “He is your family! I can prove it! You’re making a mistake!”

Yuri whirled around at those words. His silver eyes flashed up at him, reflecting none of the love that had been there before. Now, only hatred was reflected back at him.

“The only mistake I made was trusting you,” Yuri hissed. “Stay away from me. Leave me alone.”

With those words, he ran from the theater and out into the streets of Paris.

By the time Yosuke had managed to traverse the densely crowded lobby and shove his way through the crowds of onlookers and gossipers, his prince had vanished out of thin air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amazing co-author of this fic, Treya-Barton, did a fabulous job reviewing this chapter beforehand and helping with edits. I want to extend thanks to all of you readers as well for being so patient with waiting for this new chapter. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! And, of course, please stay safe. <3


	14. No More Pretend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke abducts Dojima in order to force him to meet Yuri and hear his story.

Yosuke’s stinging cheek disappeared into a dull throb as the pressing crowd and curious glances and whispers dimmed around him, being replaced by static as his mind reeled over shock at Yu’s disappearance once again. His words were embedded deeply into Yosuke’s heart, his hurt over Yosuke’s betrayal piercing him like rapiers. Yosuke was filled with grief, the same grief he felt when he had first heard the news that in spite of saving him and his uncle, the prince had gone missing and was rumored to be dead. He ached for the pain he had caused Yu, Yuri, who had trusted him, who didn’t realize he had found his family, had found the place where he belonged. Yosuke thought back to all the moments on their trip where Yu had started to look hopeful, had slowly been warming up to the idea that he may find the answer to his most pressing question, “Where do I belong?” His confession right before Yosuke had stepped onto the balcony sucked his breath from his lungs, and he realized that even though Yu had found the answer to his question, he had wanted the answer to remain with Yosuke, making the betrayal moments later all the worse. Yosuke had to fix this. He couldn’t allow Yu to suffer any longer.

Yosuke looked up, eyes determined and resolute. He did not deserve Yu – could not hurt him again – but Yu still deserved happiness and to be with his family. Yosuke could not let Yu continue on not knowing the truth about his heritage. Yosuke swiftly made his way through the crowd, noting that Chie and Teddie had disappeared and figuring they had seen the commotion and had tried to go after Yuri in order to calm him down. As Yosuke finally stepped back out into the cool night air, his eyes scanned the waiting vehicles, finally spotting the one he was looking for. Yosuke knew Dojima’s family crest well having seen it on his things and items of clothing every time he had visited his nephew. The valet had stepped away from the car, obviously waiting by the door to open for his guest, and Yosuke pulled his hat down lower over his eyes and propped up his collar on his jacket in order to hide his face better. He nonchalantly made his way toward the car, carefully walking around it toward the door, noting with relief that the key was in the ignition. Once he spotted Dojima making his way out of the Opera house, his face stern and eyes still bristling with anger from their encounter, he waited until the valet had let Dojima inside and closed the door before swiftly leaping into the driver’s side door and starting up the vehicle.

Behind them, the valet began to shout, but Yosuke ignored him and took off, leaving the other man behind. If things didn’t go as planned, Yosuke would be jailed or worse for abducting the prince, but he honestly didn’t care at this point. He had to do something for Yuri. “Valet, slow down,” Dojima demanded while leaning back in his seat.

Yosuke turned his head to face him. “I’m not your valet,” he said.

Dojima’s eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed threateningly. “Stop this car,” he seethed, and Yosuke shook his head. 

“Not until you listen to me,” he demanded. Dojima looked like he was seriously considering lunging at him, and Yosuke suddenly felt nervous for a moment since he remembered how strong Dojima had been when he was a boy; he still looked just as muscular under his fine suit. However, the prince suddenly looked tired and resigned, and Yosuke breathed a sigh of relief, realizing if Dojima did grab for him they would probably end up in a wreck. That may have been the reason why he seemed to let it go.

“Speak then,” he said gruffly, steely gaze boring into Yosuke’s back.

Yosuke turned his eyes back to the road, deciding he would head toward the hotel they were staying at. Surely Yu would want to get his things prior to whatever he planned on doing next. “I’m not sure if you remember me, but I was that kitchen boy who was always hanging around Yu…I mean the tsarevich growing up,” Yosuke started.

Dojima raised an eyebrow. “This is certainly the first time someone has claimed to be a member of the waitstaff,” he replied dryly, although when Yosuke glanced at him in the rear view mirror he realized Dojima seemed to be looking at him more closely. If Dojima remembered him, it may make stating his case easier.

“The night that the palace was ransacked,” Yosuke said, swallowing since his throat felt suddenly dry, “the tsarevich returned to his room in order to grab something you had given him. He had treasured it and always kept it with him.” Yosuke suddenly realized that it was the pocket watch – the same one Yuri had with him now that he had shown him the same day that Yosuke had shown him his toy frog. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten about that thing. “It was a pocket watch.”

Dojima sucked in his breath, and Yosuke knew he finally had him. “You had gone in after him, but you were both then trapped by burning debris from the roof that collapsed outside the door. You couldn’t go out the window since there was the revolutionary mob out there waiting to capture the family.” Yosuke’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I had seen you both disappear into the room. I knew of a secret passageway used by servants – it connected to the kitchen so we could bring you food without being spotted in the main halls. I used it to get you both out so you could escape from the mob.”

Dojima didn’t reply, and Yosuke looked back to see him staring out the window with his jaw set. Yosuke knew that there was no way anyone else but them would know that story. Yosuke then reached the hotel and pulled up before stopping and turning off the car. “You are right, by the way,” he confessed. “My plan was to find someone suitable to play the part of the tsarevich and bring him here for the reward money. But when I ran into Yuri…I couldn’t deny how much he reminded me of Yu.” Yosuke’s voice was heavy with emotion as he stared forward. “Yu…he had been my best friend. When it was reported he had probably died, I was devastated. At first, I tried to deny that Yuri was Yu, but over time I couldn’t deny it.” Yosuke turned to look at Dojima. “Ask to see his pocket watch,” he said firmly. “He knew about that night in the palace, without me saying anything. He is the tsarevich, I swear it.”

Dojima looked at him steadily, the earlier anger now gone from his eyes as he watched him appraisingly. “You really are a stubborn young man, aren’t you,” he replied, and Yosuke gave him a small smile.

“About as stubborn as you are, your highness,” he replied. Dojima’s eyes turned toward the hotel, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yu is in room 404,” Yosuke said helpfully.

“I suppose it will not kill me to hear that young man’s story,” Dojima replied, before getting out of the car. When Yosuke did not join him, Dojima turned to give him a pointed look.

“I…don’t think he wants to see me right now,” Yosuke admitted. “Thank you. For giving him a chance.” Yosuke gave Dojima a sad smile and watched him as he made his way into the hotel. Yosuke’s heart still ached, but he knew somehow that things would work out now for Yu. He had finally found his family – the place where he belonged. Things would finally work out for him. Yosuke closed his eyes before resting his head against the steering wheel of the car. And now it was time for him to prepare for his return trip to Russia.


End file.
